Two weeks after the tragedy, in the streets of ground zero of the floods, there are still volunteer firefighters from practically every corner of Spain shrinking garages, opening businesses, cleaning the streets… One of the The first teams to arrive were Ericam Madrid (Emergency and Immediate Response of the Community of Madrid), a unit created in 2007 which, the day after the flood, already had 31 people on the ground. This first aid was very hard, even for professionals like them, experienced in earthquakes like those of Haiti, Lorca, Turkey and Morocco: they had to save several bodies from the rubble and mud and the population did not even have basic services like water and light. A week after the flood, the initial chaos had begun to subside, but the work of these firefighters and health workers was still needed. “We are the second relief that Madrid is sending and we are around 68 soldiers in the area. Our job mainly involves inspecting garages to drain water, refloating vehicles and checking for fatalities. Yesterday, unfortunately, we found a body,” Guillermo Gosalbo, head of Ericam in Valencia, said last week. The canine team, for example, stayed at home after this first aid, because their rescue dogs are trained to act immediately after the emergency and find survivors The animals that track corpses, he emphasizes, are trained in a different way “Every morning we have a meeting with the liaison officer from Valencia and they give us. assign the areas in which we have to operate, these last days in Sedaví,” he explains Gosalbo, directing several colleagues about to enter a neighbor’s still flooded garage. It is not the only Ericam group that works in the area: they are divided into four teams that operate simultaneously, with their recognizable firefighters and Summa-112 vehicles, in several streets of the same environment with devastating effects throughout Spain Adrián Peñacoba and Pablo AmigoLa. The day of these volunteers in Valencia exceeds twelve hours a day: they start at 7 a.m. and do not end until 9 p.m. They say bailing out a flooded garage can take five or six hours, and it requires several pumps. “Our work here is different from earthquake rescue. We do firefighting work like in Madrid: bailing out, searching and rescuing people, opening doors, cutting off gas… Whatever it takes”, say most of the veterans, taking advantage of a lunch break Some people are still surprised to see “in the first world” the piles of furniture full of mud accumulating in the streets Cristina, one of the few firefighters in the group, with extensive experience in international disasters. recognizes that the landscape is similar to that which occurs after a earthquake, “with the only difference that there are buildings that stand here, when it ends, at door door”, the Madrid contingent, which was also joined by firefighters from different parks of the Community. from Madrid, rests at the Blasco Ibáñez de Benetúser school, where they lacked nothing, they admit: “The people were incredible, They only had words of gratitude for us. People must let go. taken from let us listen to them…” says Gosalbo. His team is already at home, but Ericam’s work continues: more than 40 volunteers, including firefighters and members of Summa-112, have taken over, to which must be added 39 other members of the Forestry Brigades. So far, the Community of Madrid has mobilized 292 professionals, including firefighters, rescuers, forensic doctors, psychologists, emergency health professionals and support. madrid_dia_0703 “Currently we have around 400 soldiers in Valencia. The work of health workers is going to be more and more important,” explains Inma Sanz, vice-mayor and delegate for emergencies and security in Madrid. As for collection, the income is already much lower: “It’s This is how we convey what the municipalities in the region asked us, namely that this aid be redirected towards financial donations. This time we are talking about more than 1,000 tonnes which were collected. On our side, 700. 000 masks have been donated to Valencia. We will continue to help as long as necessary and in whatever is asked of us. “It seems that we will soon be asked for additional technical personnel to consolidate the buildings.
