“It is very important to be with the Civil Protection and carry out these drills, to protect ourselves, our families, the Setubalense community”said the mayor, after highlighting that International Civil Protection Day was marked in Setúbal with earthquake drills in all schools in the municipality.
André Martins highlighted the presence of the Municipal Civil Protection Service and the Sapadores de Setúbal Fire Company in the drill that took place at the Dom Manuel Martins Secondary School, considering that “everything went very well” in exercise.
“These are initiatives that help our children, throughout the years they are in school, to be prepared for any eventuality that may happen and, in certain circumstances, to know what they have to do to protect themselves”he said, noting that an accident could happen “any time” It is “That’s why we need to prevent it.”
The President of the Chamber expressed his satisfaction at having found that in that school, which has a professional Civil Protection course, “things are organized” and the entire school community moved “in order to protect yourself from an accident that could happen here”.
One minute after the simulated earthquake, the school community went to the meeting point, located on the outdoor sports fields, where they remained until those responsible for Civil Protection determined that returning to the classrooms was possible, as there were safe conditions. in the building. Meanwhile, firefighters had already extinguished a fire that had broken out in the chemistry laboratory.
The director of Escola Secundária Dom Manuel Martins, Clemência Funenga, revealed that the professional Civil Protection course “it helped a lot” organizing the exercise and said that the day had more activities, namely the creation of a human symbol of Civil Protection and a peddy-paper.
“It’s a day of celebration at school and we take it very seriously, because we take the safety of people and property seriously”he stated, while professor Rita Cardoso, internship advisor for the course’s students, pointed out that the school does “many joints” with the municipal Civil Protection services of Setúbal, Palmela and Barreiro and with several companies.
“We are in a high seismic risk zone. It is very important that we do these exercises, but we also train the students who help us to continue these exercises out there every day, including with the companies that have accepted them for internships and have been working in partnership with us”he said.
The drills tested safety procedures, which include the three essential self-protection measures – lower, protect and wait – and were promoted by the Municipal Civil Protection and Fire Service of the Setúbal City Council with the involvement of protection forces and assistance, namely firefighters and volunteers.
International Civil Protection Day was established on March 1 by the International Civil Protection Organization and aims to alert and raise awareness of the importance of civil protection in safeguarding human life, property and cultural and environmental heritage, in the face of the occurrence of serious accidents and catastrophes.
