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Staff Reporter

PALMA
IF the metro (which will be working again one day) should suffer an accident which causes a fire between the stations of Son Costa-Son Forteza and Son Fuster Vell, how would the people be rescued?

Such an incident, though not desirable, is possible and because of that the Palma Fire Brigade is going over the installations of the metro so that they know how the metro system works, the position of the emergency exits, ventilation shafts, fire stations and other security elements.

On Tuesday morning a group of four firemen, accompanied by various metro engineers, inspected the tunnel from the intermodal station in Plaza España to the Son Fuster Vell station, going through the stations of Jacint Verdaguer and Son Costa-Son Forteza.

The inspection was made on foot along the rails and took some two and a half hours. In the metro train, this same journey would have taken scarcely five minutes.

Firstly, the firemen visited the control centre, which surveys the whole of the metro line via a closed circuit television, and from where the metro can be controlled by computer.

The control centre can indicate to the possible victims the direction they have to go in if they need to get off the metro after an accident, and they can also manage the workings of the ventilation shafts to drive the smoke to one area or another to get it out of the tunnel.

The most complete part is the first stretch of tunnel, between the intermodal station and Son Costa station, called the “corridor”, as it coincides underground with the lines to Inca.

After this, the Inca train goes to the surface and the metro tunnel is narrower until it comes to Son Sardina, where it also surfaces.