On April 16, 2016, Ecuador suffered one of the most devastating earthquakes in its history. A magnitude 7.8 seismic movement, which epicenter was identified near Pedernales, seriously affected several municipalities of the provinces of Esmeraldas and Manabí.
Due to the seriousness of the situation, different international search and rescue teams, mainly from Latin America, were deployed in the area during the 24 hours following the earthquake.
On Sunday afternoon, April 17, the Spanish Government mobilized the Emergency Military Unit and the Immediate Response Team of the Madrid Community (ERICAM), the only two Spanish teams classified by INSARAG, the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group.
On Monday morning, April 18, 45 troops from UME and 12 specialists from ERICAM departed from the Torrejón Air Base as a single team, the " Ecuador Tactical Group". Their main capability was Search and Rescue, including six dogs, four of them specialized in rescuing survivors and two in rescuing dead victims, as well as telescopic cameras, geophones and drones for the technical search.
Once in Ecuador, and following guidelines by the UN, the Spanish Group was deployed to Canoa, one of the most affected towns by the earthquake and its aftershock on April 17. In Canoa, UME collaborated with the local teams in the search and extraction of bodies under the rubble using specialized cutting and drilling tools.
During that same night, the Spanish team traveled to Manta, specifically to the neighborhood of Tarqui, where, for two days and as requested by the UN, they looked for bodies under the rubble and examined the condition of the buildings. This allowed the removal of rubble with heavy machinery by the local teams.
Once the search and rescue phase was completed, the Spanish group moved to the town of Chone, 90 kilometers from Manta. The main hospital of this region suffered severe structural damage. For this reason, and as requested by Ecuador’s authorities, the Spanish team examined the building’s condition and delimited the safe areas.
Luckily, the medical equipment stored in the hospital was not damaged. UME and ERICAM collaborated with the Ecuadorian military forces to recover the material and equipment. A total of 105 items of great value were recovered, including X-ray equipment, servo-control incubators, electrocardiogram machines, electric beds, etc. Although the value of the equipment exceeded $1,200,000, its importance in the daily life of the 800 hundred patients that depended on it was definitely more valuable.
The next day, the USAR teams from Spain used their capability to protect Cultural Interest Assets, specifically those in the archaeological Museum of the municipality of Bahía de Caraquez.
For two days, the Ecuador Tactical Group reinforced the structure of the building and cleaned up unsafe areas to prevent future damage of these historical objects of great value.
After completing the missions in the province of Manabí, the Spanish contingent moved to Quito, where Ecuador’s National Emergency Monitoring Center is located. The group stayed there as requested by the Ecuadorian authorities to react quickly in case of future events.
Finally, on Friday, April 29, a plane from the 45th Spanish Air Force Group took the UME and ERICAM personnel back to Spain, arriving on Saturday, April 30. They were received by the Commander of UME, the General Director of Civil Protection and Emergencies and by the Director of Citizen Security of the Community of Madrid.
This was the fourth time that UME deployed due to an earthquake, after one in Lorca (Spain) and three abroad (Haiti, Nepal and Ecuador).
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