San Bartolomé de Tirajana is equipped with the first aquatic lifesaving drone on the Island

 

The City Council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana has provided its Fire Fighting and Rescue Service (SEIS) with an aquatic drone for rescues in dangerous situations of one or more people on the beaches or dams of the Island. The 25 firefighters of the municipality have started training courses with him in the open waters of Playa del Inglés.

 

The acquisition of this drone, the Dolphin 1+, was carried out from the Lanzarote company Exo Dron Service as a minor contract through the State Contracting Platform. It cost about 7.500 euros and meant savings for the City Council of just over 3.000 euros. 

 

 

 

 

The firefighters of San Bartolomé de Tirajana thus become the first security force in Gran Canaria to have this rapid response service device. In the Canary Islands, the City Council of La Oliva, in Fuerteventura, and the Security and Emergency Consortium of the island of Lanzarote already have it.

 

The drone, weighing just 13 kilos and 85 centimeters wide by 1,19 long, is electric and is propelled by turbines at a maximum speed of 4 meters per second with a durability of 60 minutes. Its buoyancy allows a direct weight of up to 225 kilos. Its operation, very simple and by radio control, reaches up to 800 meters from the shore. It can also be piloted manually.

 

 

 

The sixth deputy mayor and councilor responsible for the municipal area of ​​Security and Emergencies, José Carlos Álamo Ojeda, specifies that the City Council has purchased this drone so that firefighters can safely cover rescue, rescue or lifesaving emergencies on the beaches of the municipality during the hours in which the Red Cross services do not operate, between six in the afternoon and ten in the morning, and in all those cases where their participation is required. “This acquisition is part of the aquatic equipment with which we are providing our firefighters with the aim of promoting and modernizing this important service on our coastline,” he adds.

 

“It is a very useful preventive instrument that offers us numerous features with guarantees of effectiveness, since in aquatic emergency processes it allows us to act with great safety, immediacy and speed, without the need to expose the rescuers, since the drone accesses it remotely. even people in danger of drowning who are conscious and tow them to the shore,” says José Carlos Álamo. 

 

 

 

For this, the drone has an integrated GPS system, speakers that allow instructions to be given to victims from a distance, a video recording camera, and a spotlight for night lighting. In addition, the equipment is complemented with a rescue rope of about 6 meters, and with three complementary buoyancy devices for cases of multiple rescues. The drone also allows it to act in the rescue of unconscious victims through its manual crew, significantly shortening response times while swimming.