The Zaragoza Attorney General has opened an investigation to find out the circumstances that caused the fire that occurred a week ago at the psychogeriatric residence of Villafranca de Ebro, which led to the death of ten of the residents.
The decision of the representative of the Public Ministry comes in response to the request made by the Association for the Defense of Patients to automatically open an investigation into an event about which they express their “astonishment and disbelief” in the face of the high number of victims recorded.
“We don’t really understand how a fire breaks out in a room and affects no less than ten elderly people. Nobody noticed anything? What was in the room that could have caused such a fire? Didn’t we immediately go to the fire department? These are some of the questions that association officials are asking the prosecutor’s office, urging them to clarify the doubts raised by the center’s security measures.
They also consider in their memory that such situations could constitute a crime of abandonment of duties and knowingly abandoning measures to protect the elderly, which is why they are counting on rapid action from the public prosecutor’s office to discover the reasons for this drama.
“In this case, we understand that people’s lives would be put in danger due to the poor functioning and poor supervision of the administration,” adds the letter from the patients’ ombudsman.
They demand to improve the “disastrous” conditions of workers in the sector
This Friday, a week after the tragedy experienced during the fire at the residence, the OSTA union met to demand that politicians develop an autonomous collective agreement that restores dignity to the profession and improves the “quite disastrous” conditions. endured by the approximately 13,000 workers in the sector. Still shocked by the tragedy, those gathered in Zaragoza paid tribute to the workers of the residence, in particular to the two night colleagues who risked their lives to save those of many residents, in an act of gratitude that they addressed to the firefighters. , the Civil Guard and the rest of the troops who collaborated in the emergency that occurred seven days ago.
OSTA union delegate and supervisor of the Jardines de Villafranca residence, Ana María Meler, called for a review of staff ratios so that there are more people in each team: “Nothing happens until this happens. It happens and at that moment you realize that you are absolutely not protected. No matter what we want to do, it’s impossible and the two workers who were there the night of the fire are within the limits of the ratio, but, obviously, if there were more people, everything would be better at the time of the fire. changes and at all levels,” he underlined.
Meler loudly shared his “perplexity and sadness” in the face of the “media circus” generated around the tragedy and the succession of statements “from those who do not know the reality of the sector”, while the workers “remained silent”, focused on assisting users of the affected residence. Some of them, even, making compatible their work in the Vitalia Huesca center, where the affected residents have been temporarily transferred, and the cleaning and conditioning work that they carry out in the Villafranca de Ebro center so that users “They can come back as soon as possible.”
The urgency of this return comes from the fact that the residents of the damaged center are currently feeling “disoriented”, who have been relocated to Vitalia Huesca, as the supervisor explains, because “they are not used to the rules of the new center and “I miss the freedom that being able to walk in the gardens of the residence and in the streets of Villafranca de Ebro gives them.”
In his speech, Meler blamed the political class for promises that have not been kept for years: “Measures such as ratios are negotiated by our politicians and the unions who support social dialogue, which is why many of these statements sincerely shame the political class. others since they are part of the problem and since 1992, with governments of different colors, they have done absolutely nothing,” he stressed. “Those who are tearing their hair out today and criticizing the ratios and conditions,” Meler continued, “are those who are negotiating or approving a state agreement that regulates the conditions and salaries of more than 13,000 people in Aragon and which does not value or dignify their work.” .
