BRIEFS: Public safety

Emergency drill held at building site

Emergency personnel took part in an exercise yesterday designed to prepare them to deal with a large-scale accident at a construction site.

The simulation, which began at 10:30 a.m. and lasted for about an hour, took place at Los Faros de Panamá, in Punta Pacífica.

It involved personnel from the construction company working on the project, ICA, as well as firefighters, police, the Red Cross and the Sistema Nacional de Protección Civil (Sinaproc).

The drill simulated an explosion that injured a number of workers.

ICA's head of security, Velda Arosemena, said that the event was organized, in part, to assess how well the company's emergency procedures function.

Officials from Sinaproc and the fire department called the drill a success.

There are a total of 208 workers at the construction site.