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News desk PEDRO Orfila, the head of the ministry of the interior's emergencies department, said that very few public places had drawn up emergency contingency plans, and this situation was “not satisfactory.” He said it was obligatory for certain establishments such as hotels, schools, soccer stadiums, hospitals and clubs to have emergency plans which include clearly marked emergency exits and fire extinguishers.

Photo: E Ballestero

He added that those in charge of the establishments should draw up a plan, which should be supervised by a ministry technician. Copies of the plan should then be submitted to the ministry, to be included in the computer register of the 112 emergency service.

Orfila said that at the moment, the law does not include fines for those who do not have such a plan “but we hope that the future law on emergency situations which is now being drawn up will establish a series of fines.” He was speaking at the start of a seminar on emergency plans organised by the business association CAEB.

But many establishments do have emergency plans and they are tested on a regular basis.
This was the case at the Costa i Llobera school in Pollensa, where a mock fire drill was carried out yesterday and the 210 pupils were evacuated in a record time of six minutes.

However, the 112 emergency service failed to send out warnings to the police, fire brigade and Guardia Civil, and the latter two failed to turn up at the school, so it was not possible to evaluate their reaction time.

It was the first fire drill to be carried out at a Pollensa school, although similar exercises will be carried out over the next few weeks.
The Pollensa council has set in motion a security protocol which includes a specific emergency plan for each of the schools.
Local Police officers and the specialists who were there to evaluate the risks praised the children, who kept calm and followed the instructions given by the headmistress and teachers.

They left the school in single file and reached the safety of the car park in six minutes. Yesterday, teachers at the Joan Mas school attended a lecture on the emergency plan, which takes into account the architecture of each building and its weak points.