Orihuela’s Councillor, Luisa Boné, announced on Friday the deployment of lifeguards and first aid cover for the regions beaches.
At this stage, however, the service is only to be provided at weekends, with the full coverage kicking in at the start of the high summer season.
She said that the lifeguards have been introduced because of the high number of bathers who are already using the beaches and they will also include the beach el puente del Pilar.
Although only 3 beaches we covered on 3 and 4 June, all 11 of Orihuela’s beaches will be provided the service starting from next Saturday with an ambulance also placed at their disposal.
The service will continue at weekends for an additional month even after the end of the summer season on 15 September.
Timings for the lifeguards will be 11am to 7pm off season and 10am to 7pm during the peak holiday season.
The councillor also said that the Department of Beaches of Orihuela will advise the public of the state of the sea, through facebook, on a daily basis.
Meanwhile on Saturday afternoon, the very first day of their deployment, lifeguards were called into action on La Zenia beach (Cala Bosque) when a mother and her two daughters found themselves in difficulty.
Following the deployment of a Jet Ski the two girls were quickly pulled to safety after which the lifeguards were then able to carry the mother to the beach, where she was treated by medical staff for cardiorespiratory arrest. Fortunately all three individuals are said to have made a full recovery.
Had the lifeguards not been in place, however, the consequences could have been very different. Perhaps the authorities might now consider the merits of extending lifeguard cover to all 7 days of the week.
On Saturday 03/06/2017. My self partner and 2 other couples where on la Zenia beach. My self, partner and 2 of our friends where in the water when we heard what sounded like a whistle. I said I think we are being called out of the water. Then my partner Trev and friend Paul said someone is struggling. As we were the nearest at the time, Trevor and Paul immediately started to swim over towards 2 little girls and a young women. As I realised 3 people where struggling, I also swam towards them. Trevor and Paul managed to get to one of the little girls and began to bring her towards the rocks. Eventually a life guard appeared and took the little girl from them placed her on the orange float and brought her the rest of the way back in. As he took the little girl he asked Trevor and Paul if they where ok, the both nodded yes, but where both exhausted. He then looked towards the young women to ask if she was ok, she shook her head. I am told as Trevor got out of the water he saw the young woman go under, then come back to the surface face down. Obviously this shook him up terribly. I did not see what happened to the 2nd little girl. As at this point I had realised I was not strong enough to fight the tide and begun to struggle. Fortunately a guard was near enough to assist myself and friend Dave onto the rocks(Dave had also begun to swim towards the people struggling, in an attempt to help save one of them). As I scrambled onto the rocks I noticed several lifeguards trying to get the young women out of the water. By this time lots of male watchers had scrambled onto the rocks to assist. It took great effort by a lot of people, (including a person known to us as a “lucky, lucky man), had been on the cliff top in front of La Zenia Hotel. He dropped all his goods without a second thought to run down the side of the cliff to give assistance. He helped bring the you woman out of the water and on to the beach, where cpr began. He stayed for a while helping by holding iv bags for the paramedics.
My question to you is, Was there 2 same incidents on the same day on La Zenia beach? As our experience and your description bare very little resemblance to one an other.
The article published in the Leader was provided by a Spanish News Agency