Firefighters also find no deaths in the underground parking lot of the MN4 shopping center in Alfafar

Emergency teams deployed in the Valencian Community continue rescue operations in the underground parking lots of shopping centers affected by the DANA that devastated Valencia and its metropolitan area on October 29.

The priority for firefighters and EMU personnel working at these points is to drain the accumulated water and clear the mud to facilitate the search for possible victims trapped in these spaces.

One of the critical points is parking. Bonaire Shopping Center in Aldaiathe largest in the Valencian Community and one of the largest in Spain.

Since this Sunday, dozens of soldiers have been working tirelessly. So far, no body has been found, but work continues.

Firefighters also made progress this Monday in evacuating water from the two-story parking lot of the MN4 Shopping Center, located in Alfafar. This Monday, a visual inspection of the first floor of the underground car park was carried out, finding 12 vehicles and no bodies.

“This morning we carried out inspection tasks with a zodiac and a boat to check the vehicles and we found no one, fortunately,” he explained in statements to EFE. Francisco Sorianotechnical director of the Provincial Consortium of Firefighters of Málaga, one of the groups of troops that work in the MN4.

Next to them are the firefighters Cádiz, Cordoba or Granada, as well as others from Madrid and Bilbao, in addition to the Military Emergency Unit (UME), all of whom came to Valencia in an “altruistic and voluntary” way, according to their superiors.

Before the visual inspection this morning, the firefighters had to wait until the electricity supply was completely cut off in order to avoid accidents, particularly due to the state of the roof, from which several metal parts that could present a danger had come loose. for the public. .be in contact with water.

22,000 meters

Regarding water, Fuengirola fire chief José Julián Bueno said all necessary safety measures were being taken to prevent possible infections among rescue workers.

The two underground floors of the car park amounted to approximately 22,000 square meters and had a height of approximately 3 meterswhere more than 80 million liters of water had accumulated, according to Soriano.

This Monday, a “fairly powerful” bilge pump arrived from the EMU. Meanwhile, the second floor of the parking lot will be reduced “throughout tomorrow.”

“We have been working for two full days now and yes, the fatigue is perceptible,” admitted the Fuengirola fire chief, who however stressed that the support of the population “makes this physical fatigue dissipate and ultimately you don’t remember Not even that you’re tired or anything.

Bueno also stressed that what happened in Valencia “exceeded any work capacity of any administration” and warned that “what is seen on television represents 1% of what is really here.”

“The magnitude is difficult to explain with words and pictures“, he lamented.

The firefighters working on the MN4 completed their mission once night fell, only to resume it when light returned.