EMERCOM officials to test security at Olympic facilities in Sochi

SOCHI, February 5 (Itar-Tass) – Senior officials of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense /EMERCOM/ are visiting the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi where they will check the security measures at the facilities being built for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and will examine the readiness of rescue units for action, the EMERCOM spokeswoman Irina Rossius said.

An EMERCOM group led by Minister Vladimir Puchkov arrived in Sochi late night Monday. Upon arrival, Puchkov held a process meeting where he told the directors of all departments accompanying him on this trip to inspect the Olympic facilities in accordance with the professional spheres their departments are concerned with.

Special attention will be paid to the current status of firefighting units that will ensure safety precautions during the Games.

“Only twelve months are left before the start of the Olympics and we must consider in advance the emergency situations of any type that may break out here, as well as try out all the algorithms of their solution,” Rossius said.

The simulation of emergency situations and the testing of safety measures is being done at present in the course of test competitions at various facilities.

“Also, we’re doing the troubleshooting of possible emergencies,” Rossius added. “All the socially significant facilities were inspected for this purpose earlier.”

She added that one of the things the minister stressed at Monday’s process meeting was the importance of ensuring command off the English language by all the EMERCOM officers and workers who will assist the Sochi Olympics.

‘Scheduled classes of English continue,” Rossius said. “A special phrasebook has been compiled and more workers will be enrolled for the language course.”