The Civil Guard and Local Police of Torrevieja, with the support of the Torrevieja firefighters, have rescued a 60 year old wheelchair bound woman who had taken refuge on the balcony after a fire broke out in her first floor home.
The officers climbed onto the balcony from the roof of a Policia Local van, as they were unable to gain access through the main door of the apartment because of the fire.
The Local Police parked the patrol van under the balcony after which two Local Police officers and two Civil Guard officers gained access to the first floor balcony by climbing onto the top of the vehicle and handing her to the officers below.
The rescued woman and a married couple with a 7-year-old child have been transferred by SAMU ambulance to the Torrevieja University Hospital where they are receiving assistance following their inhalation of smoke from the fire.
Notification of the fire was received by the Torrevieja-Vega Baja Sur fire station around 10:30am on Thursday. The incident, which could have been caused by a failure in the apartment electrics, occurred on the first floor of the seven-storey Panorama building , located at the confluence of Calle Babor, very close to Avda Alfred Nobel, to the North of the Torrevieja municipality. The fire can be seen to have caused significant material damage to the apartment.
Firefighters evicted tenants from the rest of the building, which was almost empty of residents. They have also carried out the work of smoke extraction which was made difficult because the owners had covered the air outlets in common areas with cabinets and other belongings.
