DO NOT PANIC: Emergency Drills To Simulate Earthquake And Chemical Incident On Costa Del Sol Next Monday, October 23

A large emergency drill will be carried out in the Costa del Sol city of Marbella on Monday, October 23, designed to recreate an earthquake situation.

Simultaneously, another drill will take place in the municipality of San Roque where a chemical accident will be simulated. This make-believe incident will involve a theoretical forest fire and a chemical spillage which would cause potential environmental pollution in the Estepona region.

These exercises are being carried out to test coordination and response to actual real-life major emergencies. They are also designed to check the use of the EsAlert or reverse 112 system.

This system allows mass messages to be sent to the mobile phones of citizens located in a certain area informing them of measures that they should take for their protection, according to malagahoy.es.

The drills will be used to analyse various information collected

Among other things, the authorities will use the drills to analyse the flow of internal information between the operational coordination structures.

They will also monitor the activation of the plan at its different levels and the organisation of any potential evacuation of affected people, along with how to deal with the search and rescue of missing people.

As reported this Saturday, October 21 in a tweet from the 112 Andalucia Emergency Services, this drill will cause an unusual increase in the activity of emergency vehicles in the areas where it is held. As a result, the emergency service urged the population not to be alarmed by the situation.

📌#SimulacroRespuesta23 En #Marbella #Málaga el ejercicio simulará un terremoto de magnitud 6,1 que será sentido en distintos municipios de la Costa del Sol

📲 Si estás en la zona y recibes un mensaje en tu móvil
NO TE ALARMES, NO TIENES QUE HACER NADA es sólo un ejercicio ‼️ pic.twitter.com/hqmqT1zZBq

— Emergencias 112 (@E112Andalucia) October 21, 2023

A large earthquake will be simulated

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 and a depth of five kilometres will be simulated in the province of Malaga. It will affect several towns on the Costa del Sol, with Marbella chosen to be the location most affected.

In this instance, the reverse 112 will be tested in the Finca de la Trinidad area. Anybody within this region will receive an alert message on their mobile phones indicating that it is only a test and that they should not be alarmed or take any action.

During the exercise, the evacuation of the Mario Vargas Llosa school in Marbella will be carried out. Around thirty extras from the Pérez de Guzmán Institute in Ronda will participate in this drill.

An environmental pollution incident will be simulated in Estepona

A second exercise in the province of Malaga will simulate a case of environmental pollution in the municipality of Estepona that will test the response capacity for the protection of the coastline.

Members of the public located in this region will also receive an alert message on their mobile phones. As in the case of Marbella, the population will be informed not to panic.

An Advanced Command Post (PMA) will be installed for both drills from where the work carried out by the different services that participate will be coordinated. The entire emergency exercise will be monitored from there as well.