This is how the EMU against fires is prepared and deployed: "Fire is attacked with fire"

The afternoons pass in a tense calm at the General Headquarters of the Military Emergency Unit (UME). Since the fire phase began, a platoon formed two days of guard duty, prepared in case the dreaded call arrives: that there is a fire that cannot be controlled somewhere in Spain. They arrive at eight o'clock, raise the flag and do physical exercise, normally two hours. Afterwards, shower, sandwich and whatever it takes.

The last week of May the fire phase came into force in the UME, a period that lasts until the end of September. Then, the autumn flood phase begins, which takes over from the snowfall, until spring blooms and they return to the rain protocol until summer, the time of greatest demand and alarm for the EMU that this newspaper verified during the practice day he did with them.

When a fire breaks out, a technical director of Extinction takes charge. He is a public official from outside the Army with training and competencies to lead the necessary personnel to delimit the fire. Because, as the members of the UME explain, the flames do not go out, they are delimited so that they are extinguished. “Fire is attacked with fire”, is his motto. At the first level, it is the local and regional media who work against the flames. Once the second phase is reached, the extinction director decides when the UME is called, which acts on request.

And then that call comes and the time trial is activated. The command vehicle with a lieutenant on board has to leave the barracks in less than 15 minutes.. Meanwhile, a supply truck, three pumpers and a park truck start up. In less than an hour from receiving the call they have to be ready. The gear that they rehearse begins from the moment they activate the fire phase.

The commanding lieutenant reports to the fire director and when he arrives he already knows what to do. Time is key and the action is decided in a few minutes so that when the soldiers arrive they know how to act.

The UME has two types of pumpers, some older Iveco and with the same configuration as a traditional fire truck; and a modern multipurpose truck, called a multipurpose vehicle, which can be used both to extinguish fires and to clear roads, installing a salt tank and a snow shovel. The vehicles are driven by soldiers who have the C truck license. During the quiet days in the barracks, they carry out a daily maintenance of first step: that the cars are prepared and that the system works well. The one that serves to extinguish fires and the one for self-protection. The interior of the car has an independent oxygen system and of the 3,500 liters of water capacity, 500 are self-protection, through a tube system that, when activated, sprays the outside of the truck with water that insulates it from the flames.

Safety is the most important thing and for this it is necessary that the equipment of each truck is always the same, so that everything is coordinated when they arrive at the fire. At that time, the first mission of the driver is to move to the rear and turn on the water pump.. While doing this, the colleague who occupies the seat next to the left rear door has jammed the front wheel of the truck. The other five troops carry backpacks containing four 25-meter hoses to have enough material to face the fire head-on.. In the back of the truck they have another 20 hoses and tools to make small firebreaks.

“Fire is attacked with fire,” insists the lieutenant. For this reason, during May, they carry out a whole week of maneuvers dedicated to training the Technical Use of Fire.

In addition to these maneuvers, they do exercises daily to try new material or different techniques. On June 12, a squad traveled to La Muñoza to test some new PVC elbows that they have manufactured to improve their techniques and reduce the minutes of material preparation against a fire.. They have designed and manufactured them. “Wherever we go, we always ask for a sports center to deploy our quartermaster: we take bunks where the troops sleep and a portable kitchen, as well as campaign rations for the first hours.”

When they located this bank of the Jarama they decided to try the elbows. Three soldiers went into the water with an electric pump. Hoses were deployed while another part of the team set up a pool into which a helicopter could carry water. It is an exercise to take advantage of the water of a river that an aerial means cannot access.

Because the seconds are essential. In a fire, once the fire engine was positioned, in less than a minute the UME has deployed the troops. Facing the fire, a spearhead attacks the flames supported by a squire and a backpacker. They alternate in seconds, because the heat is extreme and the risk is total. They are trained to work 12-hour shifts when called upon to perform. Last year they had more than a thousand troops deployed in several fires at the same time in Spain. The tense calm of the summer was altered this weekend with the important fire declared in Catalonia, which put the EMU on alert as the start of a few crucial weeks in the face of fire.