Olga Ramirez is the mayor of Villafranca de Ebrea town in the province of Zaragoza, which made national news this Friday due to a tragic event: a devastating fire in the town’s retirement home claimed the lives of 10 people residents.
The mayor of Villafranca de Ebro, accompanied by her husband Carloswere two key people in reaching the prompt evacuation of prisoners after the house fire. With the help of the two night caregivers and other volunteer neighbors, they began the eviction work until the fire team from the Municipality of Zaragoza arrived at the scene of the incident.
The mayor of Villafranca and the residence
Volga Ramírez’s phone started ringing at five o’clock in the morning this Friday. The mayor and her husband Carlos were sleeping when they were alerted by the 112 emergency services that a fire had broken out in the Jardines de Villafranca residence, where there were 69 people with dementia and mental problems, aged 25 to 90 years old.
After hours of uncertainty and much tension, sadness devastated the city. Volga Ramírez and her husband share, in this interview with OKDIARIOthe harsh experience lived in those agonizing hours of dawn, where they gave themselves body and soul to prevent the tragedy from getting worse. Their quick and decisive intervention, coordinated with that of the rest of the workers at the residence and the neighbors who offered their assistance, managed to save many lives thanks to the rapid evacuation efforts.
These first moments were crucial, because the big cloud of smoke had invaded one of the wings of the residence, which is why ten of the inmates died.
The mayor: “It was the duty of the residence”
“We didn’t do more than we had to. He was the worst thing that ever happened to me for nine years that I have been mayor of the City Hall, since an epidemic of contaminated water that we had in the city”, declared Volga Ramírez at the doors of his house.
“We removed them as is. Some half naked, others in diapers… The whole city has been transformedas well as the firefighters, the Civil Guard, the Civil Protection, the Red Cross, the Government of Aragon… We appreciate it very much”, he recalls.
“There was enormous chaos, we did what we could. The girls who worked took them outside, and we put them in wheelchairs, others walked barefoot. We sat them in the street, on chairs and covered them with blankets. Caregivers they gave their lives for the inmates,” explains her husband Carlos.
“In the area where I entered, there wasn’t much smoke anymore. I had two masks in the car and I took them out. I gave one to a guard,” he added. “Then they kicked me out of the security operation“They told me I couldn’t be there,” he adds.
Many residents maintained relationships with the city’s neighbors. In fact, one of them went to mass every Sunday: “It was a very serious misfortune. It touched all our hearts», deplores the mayor.
The cause of the fire at the residence
The causes of the fire are currently unknown. The services of Criminalistics of the Civil Guard They are currently investigating what happened. They warned that summary secrecy would be decreed and that “they have a lot of work ahead of them.”
However, the first hypothesis was launched The Herald of Aragonnoting that “a resident could have been smoking in his room during received oxygenwhich would have accelerated the flames, causing them to spread quickly throughout the room.
🚨We are working to clarify the causes of the fire at the Jardines de Villafranca elderly residence in Villafranca de Ebro.
⚫From the Civil Guard of Zaragoza we would like to offer our condolences to the family of the ten deceased people pic.twitter.com/W0uFJylrMW
– GuardiaCivilZaragoza🇪🇸 (@guardiacivilzg) November 15, 2024
For his part, the president of Aragon, Jorge Azconwho quickly went to the scene early in the morning, declared this Saturday a day of mourning in honor of the memory of the deceased. He also promised a rapid investigation to determine the causes of the event, as well as the administration’s review of the center’s permits and licenses.
