Tarragona petrochemical complexEUROPA PRESSTarragona organizes this Wednesday the largest chemical accident drill that has ever been carried out in Catalonia. Five municipalities and up to 65,000 people from Tarragona, Vila-seca, la Canonja, Salou and Reus will participate in it. The emergency teams will work with an alleged chlorine leak in a company in the southern petrochemical estate, which would have a range of three kilometers. The drill will take place almost three years after the Iqoxe explosion that caused a death in the neighborhood of La Canonja. The test will begin at six in the afternoon and at 6:30 p.m. the chemical risk sirens will sound. At that time, people who are in the area of influence should receive an alert on their mobile phone. The emergency system that is managed at the state level known as ‘Es Alert’ will work for the first time in Catalonia. In total, 20 of the 45 sirens that Civil Protection has in the surroundings of the polygon will sound. The neighborhoods of Ponent de Tarragona, the Covamar and Mirador de Solu urbanizations, a part of an industrial estate in Reus and the entire population of Canonja i Vila-seca will participate in the drill. Civil Protection asks citizens to confine themselves The test is carried out in the afternoon to see how businesses react to extracurricular activities. Civil Protection does not know what percentage will react positively to the drill and confinement but has asked the companies to lower the blinds. Companies such as Port Aventura and some petrochemical companies will activate the self-protection plan and simulate confinement. So will supermarkets and small businesses. Faced with a possible toxic cloud, Civil Protection warns that the effects would be reduced to 10% if people confined themselves with closed doors and windows and the toxicity would rise to 30% if they left the windows open. Neighbors should also turn off air conditioning devices and avoid staying in the car. Public transport users should get out of the vehicle and try to lock themselves in a building. They have also asked private vehicle drivers to do the same. Mobile alert that the user must deactivate manually It will be the first time that the ES Alert system has been tested in Catalonia. European regulations on electronic communications oblige member states to have a public system to send alerts to mobile phones in the event of a catastrophe or serious emergency in the area. The activation will be done from Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior, once the notice from the Generalitat has been received. Users will receive an alert that will activate the sound of the mobile and will not disappear until the receiver has read the alert and manually stopped it. Civil Protection has distributed brochures about the drill in the participating municipalities and has organized information sessions for citizens, volunteers and police. They have also posted a manual on how to act in a chemical emergency.