Press Release
The last training and pilot of the RESPOND-A project respectively took place on the 15th and 16th of February 2023 in the port of Valencia, Spain. This marks the ending of the project testing and evaluation phase, after two successful pilots previously conducted in Cyprus (Forest Fire scenario) and Greece (Earthquake scenario) in 2022.
With five trainings and three pilots conducted in less than 3 years, the involvement of end-users has been at the heart of RESPOND-A’s development since the earliest stage. Through a constant dialogue between end-users and technology providers, the project has designed and developed solutions that are not only innovative, but that actually meet the needs of responders and crisis managers.
The final demonstration in Valencia was a coordinated effort jointly led by Fundación Valenciaport and the Valencia Local Police involving the project consortium as well as local organisations (Valencia Port Police, Firefighters, Mooring Services, Spanish Red Cross and Civil Protection). A total of approximately 150 participants were involved in the demonstration which simulated a traffic accident causing fire and oil spill – a type of hazard which can have very serious consequences on the personnel involved, critical infrastructures as well as the ecosystem.