With the sound of the siren, City Hall employees and clients execute the duck, cover and hold protocol and later evacuate the 117-year old building, as they participate in the 3 rd Quarter Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) Thursday morning, September 26.

Facilitated by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) and other agencies, the NSED simulated a fire scenario and victim extrication exercise at City Hall and involved the use of fire trucks, emergency response vehicles, personnel and other related activities within the city hall premises.

Apart from the historic city hall, other identified pilot areas for the NSED were the Zamboanga National High School West, Doctor’s Hospital, National Museum, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), PRO-9 Mercedes, PRO-9 Highway Patrol Group, Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University (ZPPSU) and Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).

The drill began at 9am with the siren sounding off to signal the participants inside City Hall to “duck, cover, and hold,” and thereafter, immediately vacate their respective offices and gather at the designated evacuation area. 

The CDRRMO facilitated the activation of the Incident Command System (ICS), a model for command, control, and coordination of emergency response and developing incident objectives prioritizing life and safety.

Following the procedures that were carried out under the given scenario of having 6 victims trapped inside the City Hall building, search and rescue were immediately conducted, with rescuers scouring each of the offices in City Hall.
Medical response was quickly carried out after which the victims were ferried to the hospital by CHO ambulances for further treatment.

CDRRMO Chief of Operations Clint Senosa said the entire drill completed in 30 minutes, with responders arriving within 7 minutes and fire out declaration done 10 minutes after the call.

The 3rd quarter NSED in Zamboanga City was a collaborative effort with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP-Zamboanga City Fire Station), City Health Office, Task Force Zamboanga, and Zamboanga City Police Office among others.

The NSED is a quarterly activity with the aim of enhancing community preparedness and readiness of personnel in handling disasters or emergency situations. (CMO-PIO) (photo credits: Kathy Wee Sit/ Jen Casido/CMO-PIO)