Drowning Sunday Afternoon in Torrevieja

[Carl]

First part of the article covers a drowning in Mil Palmeras on Sunday evening, before moving on to the Torrevieja drowning.

https://www.informacion.es/vega-baja/20 ... 69779.html

Google translate, minus video and images:

Two bathers drowned in Pilar de la Horadada and Torrevieja in the last 24 hours

A 24-year-old man lost his life on Mil Palmeras beach in Pilar de la Frontera, and another, 23, was found unconscious in the waters south of Cabo Cervera in Torrevieja and could not be revived.

Two swimmers drowned Sunday afternoon on the southern coast of Alicante province, in two areas without lifeguard service at the time of the incidents. A 24-year-old man from Balsicas (Murcia), who died in Torre Pacheco, drowned at Mil Palmeras beach in Pilar de la Horadada, about forty minutes after the municipal lifeguard service ended. Hours earlier, another man was rescued unconscious in the coves of Torrevieja, a stretch of coastline without lifeguards and considered dangerous in rough seas; paramedics were unable to revive him.

The 24-year-old man who drowned Sunday afternoon at Mil Palmeras beach—on the northern coast of Pilar de la Horadada — was a Spanish national and lived in the village of Balsicas, in Torre Pacheco, in the neighboring Region of Murcia. Emergency services were alerted around 7:42 p.m., according to municipal sources who spoke to INFORMACIÓN, a fact confirmed Monday by the Generalitat's Emergency Coordination Center (CICU), due to the young man's severe difficulties getting out of the water. A jet ski and several lifeguards immediately responded and managed to pull the swimmer from the water, although he was already in cardiac arrest.

Outside of business hours

The drowning occurred outside of the municipal lifeguard service's operating hours. This beach area has lifeguards on duty daily from June 15th until 7:00 PM.

Local police and Civil Guard officers arrived at the scene . The CICU (Emergency Information and Coordination Center) dispatched a SAMU (Advanced Life Support) ambulance and a Basic Life Support ambulance, which traveled to the beach with medical personnel. They performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other advanced life support techniques on the swimmer, but there was no response, and the young man's death was confirmed. The body was removed at approximately 9:30 p.m.

Yellow

Throughout the day, according to the lifeguard management company Ambumar , the yellow flag indicating caution was flown in the north and central sections of Mil Palmeras beach. Over the past week, the heat and haze have been compounded by easterly winds, worsening sea conditions. Throughout the weekend, according to the same municipal sources, lifeguards were "battling" with bathers to prevent them from swimming in areas where the red flag was flying.

Mil Palmeras beach stretches for approximately 500 meters, between the mouth of the Nacimiento River to the south and the first cliffs of Barranco Rubio, already within Orihuela Costa. It is an open beach with white sand, highly valued by residents from across the Vega Baja region and the Region of Murcia.

Torrevieja

Also on Sunday afternoon, around 5:30 p.m., emergency services responded to a call in the coves of Cabo Cervera, south of the beach of the same name in Torrevieja, after receiving a report that a person was unconscious in the water. It was another young man, 23 years old and of Algerian nationality.

A SAMU unit was dispatched to the scene, located near Calle Comunidad de Madrid. The medical team attempted to resuscitate the swimmer using advanced resuscitation techniques, but there was no response and they could only "confirm his death," according to the same CICU sources.

Dangerous

This long stretch of cliffs along the Torrevieja coastline is very popular with swimmers during peak season because it is less crowded due to the lower number of tourists. However, it lacks the lifeguard and rescue services provided by the Torrevieja City Council on the beaches. Furthermore, it is a particularly dangerous section of coast when the sea is rough. In this area, which suffers from a lack of public information warning of both the absence of lifeguard services and the dangers during moderate to heavy surf , several swimmers have drowned in recent years.

Recklessness, lack of information, unfamiliarity with the area... These are all part of the statistics, that tragic tally of each summer season that stands in stark contrast to the enjoyment of leisure in tourist towns. But above all, they represent two lives cut short, two more family tragedies on a Sunday at the beach.