The City’s Department of Emergencies has celebrated this Saturday the important work carried out in the municipality by the Civil Protection.
At a ceremony held in the city, Councillor Víctor Valverde welcomed the attendees and highlighted “the importance of the coordination between the different municipal areas and the security and emergency bodies and forces during the current pandemic, so that help can be provided to those who need it most”.
After welcoming recently enlisted volunteers he presented the new operational volunteers and team leaders.
Civil Protection then gave thanks to those organistations that had been of a particular assistance during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Social Welfare, Department of Prevention of Occupational Risks, Department of Health of Orihuela and Torrevieja, Orihuela Red Cross, Forest Firefighters (S+EM), Alicante Firefighters Consortium (Orihuela), Orihuela Local Police, Autonomous Police, Orihuela Civil Guard, the Orihuela National Police and the Ministry of Defense.
Medals of merit were then presented to members of the Civil Protection for their actions carried out with COVID-19. The recipients were: José Andúgar, Ramón Rodríguez, Eduardo F. Zapata, Víctor M. Martínez, Francisco Riquelme, Francisco Martínez, Carlos Mestre, Alba Selma, Ginés Sánchez, Alejandro Sampere, Samuel Lizón and Celestino Rodríguez Leonis.
Finally, there was an emotional tribute paid to the volunteer Gema Calderón, who passed away last year, and whose relatives collected her distinction, for her work at the head of the Civil Protection Group during the 2019 DANA.
The mayor of Orihuela, Emilio Bascuñana, closed the event and during his speech he said that he has valued “the commitment of all the winners and especially the Civil Protection volunteers, who are a benchmark for other groups for their excellent work both in this pandemic and in other emergency situations, and of which we feel very proud in Orihuela”.
