Spaniards win Rescue Teams in Urban Environment Meeting

The Spanish team Espelesocorro Andaluz was the winner of the fifth edition of the Rescue Teams in Urban Environment Meeting (MESMU), a competition organized by the Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros do Porto, which took place throughout the city for three days.

For the second time, the Spanish team won, again, this important championship in which 18 Portuguese and foreign protection and rescue teams participated. In second place was the Academia Internacional de Canyoning dos Açores team, followed by "Rescue Unidos". Beyond the competition, the goal was to share experiences and good practices.

MESMU is a wide-angle meeting of rescue teams that promotes healthy competition and knowledge exchange between members of different rescue teams on the Urban aspect of their operation.

In the opening session, the councillor for Civil Protection, Catarina Araújo, had already assured that “the Municipality of Porto unequivocally supports the holding of this event, as it recognizes the importance of sharing knowledge in the area of height rescue, which has already allowed to save lives in emergency situations”.

The competitive side of MESMU integrated the simulation of rescue techniques in several places in the city, such as Igreja do Marquês, Parque do Covelo, Estação de Metro da Trindade, Luís I Bridge, Avenida dos Aliados, the viaduct in Alameda do Dragão, the escarpment of Dragão and Terminal do Bom Sucesso.

In the city of Porto, the responsible entity for wide-angle safe and rescue response belongs to Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros and its teams designated to intervene in high rise buildings, escarpments and cliffs in the coast area, pits and other locations where height and difficult access are not allowed to first responders.