Fire service wraps up two days of drills

The fire department on Thursday wrapped up two days of drills in cooperation with the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC), and with police in Larnaca.

The drills were part of fire safety week and allows firefighters to maintain operational readiness.

One of the drills took place at the EAC offices in Larnaca.

“The exercise aimed at testing the department’s action plans in response to firefighting in tall buildings, especially in tall buildings housing office staff, to test the firefighting systems of the building and to test the departments motor vehicles and other equipment deployed in such scenarios,” the fire department’s spokesman Andreas Kettis said.

At the same time, he added they tested the EAC’s internal action plan that provides for the activation of a firefighting team, building evacuation, direction of the office staff to a specific location and keeping track of staff members.

The scenario entailed rescuing of two individuals trapped on the second floor of the building and on extinguishing the fire.

“The fire brigade located the two individuals, dispatched them to Larnaca general hospital and extinguished the fire…the trapped individuals were approached using the firefighting’s vehicle telescopic arm,” Kettis explained.

Firefighters, in a second drill, worked with police and the force’s aviation unit at Larnaca airport, rescued people inside the premises and extinguished the fire there.

“We annually run a large-scale drill involving various services both from state and from private entities involved in the airport’s operations. This specific drill was conducted under the auspices of Hermes Airports with the contribution of state services and private enterprises active within the airport,” Kettis said.