Firefighters, Ibanat form united front against local blazes

foto junts contra el focThe president's office of the Formentera Council reported today on joint training sessions conducted this week with the island's fire brigade, staff of the Balearic Islands bureau of the environment (Ibanat) and an agent from the Council's Office of Environment. The goal, explained fire chief Iván Marí, “is to ensure the entities in charge of fire containment and prevention on Formentera are ready to provide a protocol-based coordinated response should fires occur.”

Starting on Monday, August 8, with one first-response vehicle in tow, four members of Ibanat's Formentera crew took part in a forest fire simulation. The crew was joined by the CiF environment agent, who acted as head of extinguishing efforts, as well as four CiF firefighters, who made use of two large water pumps and a second first-response vehicle. The training happened between sa Roqueta and es Pujols and was a chance for participants to practise handling fire hoses and other gear. Marí said the day concluded with the trainees “sharing experiences in an effort to improve their response in real wildfires”.

Besides enhancing their own inter-office coordination, participants were reminded about how to use Formentera's code-based system of geolocation. The local fire brigade consists of six employees: four professional staff and two that are on-call. The firefighters carry out daily inspections and work with Ibanat agents to ensure individuals are on the street doing prevention work when wildfire risk is at its greatest. Marí took the opportunity to ask residents all to do their part to reduce the risk of fires, especially given the current high-level of alert on the island.