Simulated training disaster to he held on Sunday night

LARNACA’S Civil Defence force is this week hosting a series of seminars and training events for Cypriot, Greek and Lebanese rescue groups, culminating in an epic simulated disaster on Sunday night.

The venture aims to prepare international civil defence groups for joint humanitarian operations, in the event of a natural disasters or hostilities.

Chrysilios Chrysiliou, Director of Larnaca Civil Defence Force said yesterday: “The Cyprus Ministry of the Exterior contacted the Lebanese government and invited their civil defence officers to take part. We then decided to invite the Greeks too, in order to give a more international perspective, and more shared knowledge and experience.”

There are 16 officers from Lebanon and Greece on the eight day course, who will attend theoretical and practical seminars before taking part in a full-scale ten hour night time exercise this Sunday.

“The emphasis of the training will be on collapsed structure search and rescue, following events such as an earthquake or terrorist attack. We will train participants to search, locate, stabilise and extract trapped victims. At first this sounds straightforward, but it is actually a complex process and there are many things to consider.” Chrysiliou added.

For example, in addition to providing first aid, and general safety, the officers will look at managing the psychological effects of an event on civilians.

The simulated event will take place at the Larnaca’s specially built training centre, which is manned by ten full time staff, and regularly trains a team of 140 part time professional volunteers. Chrysiliou said: “I personally think this is a great opportunity for Cyprus to exhibit specialist facilities and a feeling of cooperation between nations. We have people from all over Europe, including English and Estonians.”

Added to Larnaca’s core teams are 1,400 auxiliary support staff, drawn from the civilian conscripts. “Across the island, including all of the other municipalities, there are around 10,000 people involved in civilian defence, which include first aiders, rescuers and communication experts.” He added.

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