The drill carried out in Antequera (Spain) on 16th November was a multi-stage activity where a potential earthquake produced a fire in the Museum of the City and a flood in the Archive. A new tool based in Information Systems for Emergency Response in Cultural Heritage (Mission Track) was employed to organise and control the communication of safeguard teams for art-works during the simulation.
FENIX and RESISILIENT TOURISM are Spanish research projects, which main objective is the development of new technologies applied to prevention and management of fires and natural disasters in movable and immovable Cultural Heritage. The safeguard of our Cultural Heritage against disasters is a principle included in the Spanish National Plan of research in cultural heritage, as protecting our cultural heritage is a way to safeguard one of the important incomes in cities and rural zones, and a way to improve our resilience. Under this framework, these projects pretend to develop good management practice for models of taking decision and develop tools of preventive conservation, emergency response and resilience policies.
The modelling of emergency response in cultural heritage is very complex due the range of art-works, their sizes and materials, and it is more difficult when they occur in ancient buildings. For this reason, it is necessary to carry out standard tab and protocol in different scenarios for rescue and evaluate the drills based on their emergency programmes.
During November 2022, a multiple drill (earthquake, fire and flood) was carried out in the Museum and Archive of Antequera (Spain), with the activation of the emergency plan of the museum and the provincial plan (PTM) that included the help of a unit of cultural heritage evaluation and recue. The drill implied the activation of firemen, civil protection, sanitary, policemen, restores and conservators.
The software Mission Track was adapted to be employed by the unit of cultural heritage evaluation and recue (UB) for the rescue of 10 models of art-works (statues, canvas, metal pieces, papers and books), with different levels of damage. Mission Track was implemented in the mobile phones of the UB team and was parametrised in two steps: recue and triage.
The analysis of the results allows the evaluation of the time of rescue of each art-work, triage, the georeferenced of the art-works and the teams during the rescue, and the improvement in the emergency plans for next drills or emergencies.
These R+D projects (FENIX and RESILIENT-TOURISM) employed for the first time this emergency management software based on mobile technology for the conservation of cultural heritage in Spain.
Emergency drill in Antequera (Málaga): scenarios and development
Within the RESISILIENT TOURISM Project, one of the aims is to prepare civil society for catastrophic events in heritage sites (such as earthquakes, floods or fires), coordinating the protection of tourists, workers and the Plan for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage. With this purpose, an emergency drill was carried out in Antequera (Málaga).
The 112 emergency services were alerted by security team of the museum (MVCA, Museum of the City of Antequera) to a fire, which was located in the basement at 10:30 a.m. 16th November, with several injured among the visitors of a school. And all this as a result of the earthquake that was felt in the city.
Simultaneously, a second event originated, as a consequence of the seismic movement and its aftershocks, affecting the Historical Archive (water leak due to pipe rupture), requiring also the activation of the Self-Protection Plan and the Archive Safeguarding Plan, as well as such as eviction from the site.
The established protocols were activated: Museum and Archive Evacuation Plan, Museum and Archive Self-protection Plan and Territorial Plan. The exercise involved members of the Local Police, National Police, Civil Protection, Firefighters, Health Personnel, volunteers and authorities from the Antequera City Council.
The ICS (Incident Command System) was established and installed in the Plaza del Coso Viejo, from where the emergency was coordinated. Mission Track software supported the coordination of the Museum's Safeguarding Plans as well as for the coordination of the management and triage teams for artworks.
After the firefighters extinguished the fire in the MVCA and the water leak in the Historical Archive, the affected buildings were evaluated. Confirming the end of the emergency, the firefighters authorized access to the intervention teams for artworks, so the ICS activated the rescue plan for the artworks provided in the Safeguarding Plan of each institution, depending on the significance of the goods.
Sequentially and following the instructions transmitted through the “Mission track” application from the ICS, 5 artworks in the MVCA and 5 artworks in the Archive were rescued. The artworks were prioritized in the Safeguard Plan, and were assigned to different Handling Teams
It should be emphasized that all the artworks that were used in the emergency drill were models or replicas, at no time were the original artworks manipulated so as not to put them at risk. In addition, for the evacuation of the artworks, the entry and exit routes used by the rescue teams were in accordance with the evacuation plans, of each building, and were available in the Mission Track tool.
Both teams, handling and triage, had previously been constituted, of a mixed and multidisciplinary nature, by members of Civil Protection, a person from the Museum and/or Archive, and a member of the RESILIENT TOURISM team. Likewise, the triage team was made up of a multidisciplinary team integrated by representatives of local restorers as well as collaborating restorers and researchers from the RESILIENT TOURISM. For both teams, several technical workshops and on-site training, handling of the Mission Track and handling of artworks in emergencies, were organized.
The Mission-track tools were implemented with safeguard files containing essential information of the artworks. The safeguard plan sheet included: a photo of the artwork, location in the museum or archive, weight and dimensions, minimum number of people for handling, estimated evacuation time, evacuation route, as well as the recommendations for its handling.
Activated the safeguard plan of MVCA and Archive, each intervention team had to rescue 2-3 artworks, for which they had the information on their mobile phones with all the steps to follow. Each handling team evacuated and delivered the assigned artworks at the triage point (on the left in the photo "evacuation of the replica of the Ephebe) and the triage team performed the first evaluation and intervention (on the right in the photo).
During the process, all teams use the “Mission track” software installed on their mobile phone.
On the one hand, the Mission Track tool allowed the handling teams to access the rescue sheet associated with the Safeguarding Plans, while it provided the triage teams with the triage criteria to follow, as well as the possibility of recording all their decisions and photographs.
On the other hand, ICS (Incident Command System), installed in the Plaza del Coso Viejo (Antequera, Malaga), used the Mission Track software to manage the emergency of MVCA and Archive, which allowed them to:
During the event, Mission Track recorded the activation of the Museum Evacuation Plan at 11:19 a.m. which ended at 11:56 a.m., while the Archive Evacuation Plan was activated at 11:55 a.m. and the evacuation was completed at 12:18 p.m. On average, recovery times for the museum's artworks were 12 minutes and 6 minutes for the archive. In addition, Mission track not only monitored the recovery times, but also geolocated the situation of the artworks always.
The last activity of the emergency drill was a press conference, in which civil society was informed, as a fundamental part of the transfer of this type of activity, and in order to raise awareness about the need to be prepared for the rescue of artworks in emergencies.
Conclusion
Promoting the culture of emergency drills for artworks is a crucial activity for their safeguarding. It is recommended to carry out drills at least once a year, systematize the chain of command, assign roles and tasks, and make the work teams of cultural organizations and security forces aware of the need to coordinate the safeguarding of the artworks.
To be prepared for emergencies, it is necessary to test the use of efficient communication systems, such as the software used Mission Track, which allows the georeferencing of the rescue routes of artworks and the possibility of following all the actions from ICS.
AKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was based in the methodology developed by the projects: FENIX (PID2019-107257RB-I00] funded by por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y FEDER “Una manera de hacer Europa” and RESILIENT-TOURISM [PYC20 RE 034 UPO] funded by Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades. Junta de Andalucia (Spain). We want to thanks the collaboration of the Museum and Archive of Antequera, civil protection men and woman, firefighters, national and local policemen and policewoman, Andalusian Institute of Cultural Heritage, Valencian Institute of Conservation, Restoration and Research, The Official College of Doctors and Graduates in Fine Arts of Andalusia and all the observers.
Authors: Pilar Ortiz and Laura Toro, Researchers of FENIX and RESILIENT-TOURISM Projects. Department of Physical, Chemical and Natural Systems, Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain. (mportcal@upo.es).
