First aid first, says Dagupan mayor on earthquake preparedness

By Alex Romeo R. Fernandez

Wednesday 18th of July 2012

DAGUPAN CITY, July 18 (PIA) -- Administering first aid to victims should take top priority as emergency response during earthquake.

Mayor Benjamin S. Lim made this suggestion after the earthquake drill conducted at the Dagupan City National High School on Monday.

“My major concern, really, is that people get injured during earthquakes,” he told volunteers who were evaluating the drill consisting of students and faculty members.

He said doctors might not be able to come to school campuses nor can rescuers bring the victims to the hospital immediately after an earthquake.

Education supervisor Alma Ruby C. Torio, relating her experience as a teacher during the July 16, 1990 earthquake, said most students were too dizzy to go home alone that getting volunteers to accompany them became a problem.

Everybody has to be treated here, Lim said, suggesting to the schools to designate at least three trained rescue personnel in every campus.

He said the personnel should be trained how to administer first-aid and how to coordinate rescue if there is a need for one.

Noting that earthquake rarely causes fire or collapse of structures in this city, he said most injuries are caused by stampede.

The drill was conducted in observance of the National Disaster Month and the commemoration of the killer quake that hit the city 22 years ago. (ANL/ARRF-PIA1, Pangasinan)