An emergency drill has been carried out this morning in the Aulari Interfacultatiu of the Burjassot Campus, organised by the Health and Safety and Environment Service of the Universitat de València.

The provincial consortium of firemen of València, the Burjassot City Council and the 112 Emergency Service of the Valencian Community have worked together with the UV to complete this activity.

The Aulari Interfacultatiu of the Universitat de València is located in the municipality of Burjassot. The building, as the name already suggests, has a total of 22 classrooms which can accommodate approximately 2,200 students.  The classrooms are distributed between the ground floor and the first floor. The building also features the Charles Darwin Hall, with a capacity of 351 people located in the second floor.

The main access to the building is through the Av Primero de Mayo, just in front of the Federica Montseny High School, although usually, the pedestrian access is done through a footbridge that communicates with the Faculty of Pharmacy. Both buildings share a restricted garage, located on basement level -1.

In this exercise a motorbike accident has been simulated in the Aulari parking lot. As a result of the accident, fuel was spilled and a fire broke out. Due to the possible fast spread of the fire to the rest of the vehicles and the building, as well as the difficulty of rescuing the injured motorcyclist, it was considered necessary to notify the 112 Emergency Service of the Valencian Community. The firemen of the Burjassot firehouse, the Service for Emergency Healthcare and Emergencies of the Generalitat Valenciana (Valencian Government) and the Local Police of Burjassot.

Given the magnitude of the emergency, and as a preventive measure, the building's emergency protocol has been activated and the order for the total evacuation of the Aulari Interfacultatiu.

The performance of drills and exercises challenges everything that is planned and is a practical exercise for all the staff involved. In this simulation, the effective geolocation tool of the buildings and identification of the level and type of risks of the same is repeated. This computer development has been created between the Provincial Consortium of Firemen and the Security and Prevention Area of the Burjassot-Paterna Campus of the UV Health and Safety and Environment Service. By means of the Service, the firemen, once they receive the emergency warning and, on their way to the event, can visualise the exact point in which the incident has taken place through a cartographic server, as well as the nearer accesses and exits. Through this cartographic server, the firemen are also able to see which is the route inside the establishment to arrive to the place of the accident, the nearer hydrants, the characteristics of the infrastructure where it has taken place, if adjacent elements or nearby industrial zones exist, and other useful information.

It must be highlighted that, as of yet, there is no organisation in Spain that uses a GIS cartographic tool as powerful as the one developed in the Burjassot-Paterna Campus for emergency management. Thanks to the collaboration of both institutions, one more step has been taken to provide an agile and effective response to emergencies or incidents that may occur in the Universitat de València.

• 
•