Emergency services at work at the edge of the Puig de Randa. Photo Credit, IB3, @diariomallorca, X
Emergency services across the island of Mallorca have been busy this week saving lives.
Stranded until saved
A 33-year-old man found himself in need of help last Sunday, August 22 when exploring the coastline of Cala Morlanda, near Manacor. According to a report from the local fire service, firemen from the Parque de Manacor were deployed at around 11.40 that morning to assist lifeguards and police in the rescue of the man when he found himself trapped within a small coastal cave.
The man had entered the tiny cave of his own accord, but for some reason was unable to exit it without assistance, and was lucky to find himself with access to a bubble of air which enabled him to breath and kept him safe until the emergency services arrived.
Despite the rescue mission costing time and resources from the ambulance service, as well as the Manacor local police, the National police, the fire service and lifeguards, the man was reported to have been in a stable enough condition to walk away from the scene himself once he was free to do so.
Six successfully saved from collapsed building
Six French tourists were rescued on Sunday evening when the roof of a concrete cistern they were stood on collapsed. The tourists were at the top of the Puig de Randa, a 540-metre-high mountain located in the countryside between Algaida and Llucmayor, which is home to the Monastery of Cura and from which views of the island are spectacular.
The tourists had gone onto the top of the cistern in order to use it as a viewpoint, but the roof crumbled beneath them, causing them to fall into the building and leaving them trapped. This sparked a complex rescue operation, with the cistern being right at the edge of a 120-metre precipice and the sun about to set.
According to the Mallorca fire service, the incident occurred at around 19.20pm, and members of the service were dispatched from the Manacor, Felanitx and Llucmayor fire stations. The fire service reports that all six people were successfully rescued, however two of the tourists needed to by carefully extracted from the rubble using a mechanised crane due to their injuries, with one suffering severe back pain and the other from discomfort in his leg.
The rescue operation was assisted by members of the local Algaida police force, Guardia Civil and Civil Protection as well as the ambulance service SAMU-061, which provided care for the injured and transport to hospitals on the island, in order to rule out any serious injuries.
