Four bathers have died this weekend by drowning on the beaches of Catalonia. Three perished on Saturday and another this Sunday. In all cases, yellow flags waved in the sandbanks, forcing extreme caution. In addition, a fifth person, a minor, was also seriously injured by drowning with a red sign prohibiting bathing. So far in the summer campaign, which started on June 15 and will end on September 15, there have been ten deaths of this type on the Catalan coast.
What happened has put the Generalitat Civil Protection on alert, which has called for extreme caution. “Such a high number of deaths in such a short time is not usual,” acknowledged this Sunday Imma Solé, deputy general director of coordination and management of Emergencies. “We hope it is something specific,” she continued, “but for this it is important to be as careful as possible.” Thus, she recalled that “with a red flag you cannot enter the water, but with a yellow one a generic prudence is not enough, you have to do something else; for example, make sure that you get a footing or be close to the shore… If you want to swim to the buoy, better another day”. And, she stressed: “If someone feels bad, they should not bathe.”
While waiting to have all the details of the deaths this weekend, the first approximations do not seem to fit the most common pattern. “The usual thing is that they occur in normal bathing conditions, with a green flag, and that the victims are people aged 65 and 75 and over who enter the water with an excess of confidence,” explained Solé. “But – she specified – many tend to have a pathology and, once in the sea, if they suffer from a problem it can be fatal.” Thus, she pointed out, “death may not be from drowning but from other causes.”
In the cases of these two days, the victims were between 32 and 65 years old and bathed in moments of strong waves of intense heat that encouraged them to get wet. “If the influx to the beaches is very high, there is more risk of something happening, so we will not tire of asking for prudence,” Solé insisted. He also worries about the care of minors. So far this season eleven have been seriously injured by drowning in swimming pools. “There are many services, from lifeguards to SEM that prevent worse consequences,” recalls the deputy director of Emergencies, who calls for “active surveillance of children by adults; not at a distance, but to be next to it and when it is necessary to stretch out your arm and get them out”.
The first fatal drowning occurred on Saturday on the Salatar de Roses beach (Alt Empordà). Emergencies received the notice at 12:30 p.m. from some witnesses and from the lifeguard service itself. It was a 55-year-old man who was rescued from the unconscious water. The first cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers performed by the lifeguard were unsuccessful. EMS also failed to revive him.
Another notice, at 4:12 p.m., warned that a man had been pulled out of the water in the same conditions on the Miracle beach in Tarragona, without being able to revive.
The deceased, an Indian national, was 32 years old. Another 60-year-old Cuban man drowned on the Rovina beach in Castelló d’Empúries (Alt Empordà). The notice was also given by the lifeguards at 6:46 p.m. He couldn’t recover either. Saturday could have been even more tragic. A minor under the age of 13 was pulled from the sea in Empuriabrava, in the same region, at 4:43 p.m. with serious drowning. She was waving a red flag. The SEM transferred her by helicopter to the Josep Trueta hospital in Girona.
Finally this Sunday at 1:30 p.m., a new notice was received from the beach of l’Estartit (Baix Empordà) that the lifeguards had pulled an unconscious 65-year-old man out of the water. History repeated itself. Neither these nor the SEM managed to revive him. He was the fourth death of the weekend.
