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By John Ensor • Updated: 18 Nov 2023 • 20:36 • 2 minutes read
Image of someone canyoning. Credit: Krish Dulal/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Update: Friday, November 18 at 20:35
All five Spanish firefighters have been found alive and well.
Rescuers launched an intensive search soon after the alarm was raised and faced a race against time following reports of an impending cyclone.
The group were located at the bottom of a deep ravine, making the rescue a technically difficult operation. The rescue was successfully completed with all five safely back at their hotels, writes OK Diario.
The three men and two women are all friends and firefighters who share the hobby of canyoning. They work in the fire brigades of Sevilla, Cordoba, Alcala de Guadaira, Los Palacios and Villafranca.
Friday, November 18 at 8:00 am
Five Spanish firefighters all from Sevilla, on an adventure holiday to the Dominican Republic, have disappeared triggering a huge rescue mission.
The five firefighters, three men and two women have vanished on a mountain in the southwest of the country, sparking a large-scale search operation, writes Telecinco
On Monday, November 14, the group, all hailing from Sevilla and experienced in the field of firefighting, journeyed to the Dominican Republic. They were there to engage in canyoning, an adventure sport they are all keen followers of.
According to Undiscovered Mountains: ‘Canyoning, also known as canyoneering, is the act of navigating down a fast-flowing mountain stream in a gorge using a variety of techniques including abseiling, climbing, sliding and jumping.’
Their disappearance occurred in the municipality of La Cienega, Barahona province.
Carlos Confidente, the regional director of Civil Defence in the southwest of the Dominican Republic, confirmed the ongoing search. The authorities received notice of the disappearance of the five people on the morning of Friday, November 17, and ‘from that very moment they have been working on their search,’ he informed the press, being part of the rescue effort himself.
The five Spaniards, part of a larger group of friends and sports enthusiasts, were separated from their compatriot Eduardo Gomez. Gómez, who had arrived in the Caribbean country a few days earlier, has since attempted to reach his friends but struggled due to poor telephone coverage in the area.
Details about the missing group were shared in Santo Domingo at a press conference, held by emergency agencies to discuss the expected weekend rains. The potential tropical cyclone, looming 400 kilometres from Jamaica’s capital, has made the search efforts more complex.
Delfin Antonio Rodriguez, the head of Operations of the Dominican Civil Defence, highlighted the that members of the Tourist Police and the National Army are also participating in the search for the missing visitors.
The unfolding situation remains a concern, with the mystery of the missing firefighters from Sevilla deepening amidst challenging natural conditions.
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Originally from Doncaster, Yorkshire, John now lives in Galicia, Northern Spain with his wife Nina. He is passionate about news, music, cycling and animals.
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