"People were chasing us down the street": the massive blackout from the Barcelona Fire Department control room

BarcelonaMaru, 67, and her husband, Josep Manel, 68, had left home in the morning to go to the doctor. It was Monday, April 28, and the major blackout caught them leaving the hospital. They live in a nine-story penthouse in the Sant Andreu neighborhood, and Maru has been using an electric wheelchair since her accident in 2013. The elevator wasn't working, and they were forced to "walk around," eat something in a park, and wait. They waited until six in the evening, when they saw a Barcelona Fire Department vehicle and called for help. "Right at that moment, we were helping a person with reduced mobility get into their home," says Fire Department Corporal Yago Abad Galcerán.

That day Catalonia went back centuries"People were chasing us down the street," explains Corporal Abad, describing how he was writing down all the requests on a piece of paper. It reminded them of the scenes at the DANA in Valencia, where they had come to lend a hand. On the list was Josep Manel and Maru's request. "It took them very little time; in half an hour they were at our house," Josep Manel recounts. There were nine floors and a "very difficult" staircase. They placed Maru on a wooden chair and four firefighters carried her up. "I offered them drinks and food, which they hadn't eaten, but they didn't accept it," laments Josep Manel, who wants to express his gratitude. It was six in the evening, and Corporal Abad and several other firefighters from the Sant Andreu fire station had been out on the street since morning.

Almost two weeks have passed since that day, and at Sant Andreu fire station, the afternoon passes without major incident. Firefighters and officers recount anecdotes about the blackout, and they still pull out sheets of paper and other documents filled with calls from that day. On the other side of Barcelona, ​​in the Joint Command Room on Lleida Street, a Barcelona Fire Department truck is parked outside. It's not an ordinary vehicle; it's an advanced coordination center that was parked in the same place that Monday. Inside, there are many screens and buttons, but also whiteboards still covered with information about the massive blackout. One graphic immediately catches your eye: it looks like the outline of an Alpine route, with the ascent and subsequent gradient. In reality, it represents all the accumulated calls they had that day. The peak was at 5:30 p.m., with 248 calls, and by midnight, only 48 remained.

"We prioritize vulnerable people, subways, and people trapped on the subway," explains Maite Català, manager of the Security, Prevention, and Coexistence Department at Barcelona City Council. She explains this while pointing to the board, next to the Fire Department commanders who led the operation that day. Part of it was carried out from this vehicle, although the coordination center with institutional leaders, including Mayor Jaume Collboni, was located inside the municipal building on Lleida Street.

The vehicle parked on the street has a huge digital map, where all the incidents in Barcelona are displayed live. Today is a "normal day," with eight services, explains Ángel López, head of the Civil Protection, Fire Prevention, Extinction, and Rescue Service. On the Monday of the blackout, there were more than 200. That day, the basic plan, which activates all municipal services, had to be activated.

Scenarios

The crossed-out boards from that day reveal the frenetic activity. One divides Barcelona into zones and indicates which commander leads each space. Another marks the closing times for generators in key spaces, such as those in nursing homes, hospitals, and even specific areas of the hospital itself. The Barcelona Fire Department has a 1,000-liter diesel tank, and that day it had to be refilled three times, as Gerard Pradas, head of the Firefighter Space and Prevention Outreach Unit, explains.

On a board in the background, there is still a section for firefighters who were off duty but had volunteered to work, and they were listed in case they were needed. Meeting times are also noted, along with the person in charge for each topic. Sebastià Massagué, head of the Civil Protection, Prevention, Firefighting, and Rescue Service, gives a positive assessment of the operation, although he admits that there were "hours of anxiety," especially given the possibility that the strike might be extended.

The alarm sounds at the Sant Andreu Fire Station. Someone is trapped in an elevator, and a vehicle is mobilized. "We do a few every day," the station's firefighters comment. But on the Monday of the blackout, they did a lot. About 150 across the city. A woman was even trapped in a metro elevator all day. She didn't respond when several spaces in the station were called to see if anyone was still there. Later that afternoon, when a final check was made, she was found.

Lessons Learned

That day, everyone learned a lot, including the firefighters. For example, that the most modern elevators are very complicated to raise or lower manually to free trapped people. Because of this, they had to come up with imaginative solutions. "Hence the saying that we have firefighter ideas," they joke. For example, they connected the elevator to a generator on the truck to power it. Now, they point out, they will try to have that connection more ready in case they encounter it again. They also rediscovered Barcelona guides for getting around the city given the impossibility of using sat navs, and that it might be useful to have wheelchairs in parks because, if people in electric wheelchairs (which weigh more) have to climb many floors, it becomes very difficult.

The firefighter leaders have also learned things. Català, for example, points out that the space on Lleida Street has become too small for them. In this regard, he explains that the project to establish the Joint Command Room, which also houses the Guardia Urbana, the Mossos d'Esquadra, and the Emergency Medical System (SEM), is already underway around the Three Chimneys in the Poble-sec neighborhood. He also talks about improving the autonomy of certain police stations and even the knowledge and training of those responsible for emergencies of this type, starting with the managers. "It wasn't a planned risk; we must learn," he states. Meanwhile, while awaiting another marathon day, the blackboards continue to be crossed out in one of the most intense episodes in recent memory for firefighters.