News

A man was left injured on Wednesday after falling from the fourth floor of a hotel in Donostia-San Sebastián while taking part in a drill to test a new system designed to enable evacuation in the event of a fire.

The accident took place at around 11am during the first of three trials being carried out by the inventors of the new system, with which people are able to vacate a burning building through a window descending by a cable, supported by a harness.

When the first of three test workers climbed up to the hotel window situated on the fourth floor in order to attach himself to the cable - by which he would then lower himself to the ground - for reasons still under investigation, the system failed, meaning the man fell directly down from a height of around 16 metres. The injured man was shortly after taken to hospital still conscious but in a state of shock.

Colleagues of the injured man assured journalists that the system had been tried out previously without any problems.