Pascual López was 51 years old and was a neighbor of Moixenta municipality in the Valencian region of La Costera. He was married, had two daughters and became a collateral victim of the DANA suffered by Valencia on October 29.
He had worked in the public company since 2020 Tragsa and died last Sunday morning while participating in cleaning work at the Lluís Vives school in Massanassaone of the schools destroyed by this natural disaster.
The events occurred this Sunday shortly before 12:00 p.m. After learning of the event, the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazonconvened an “emergency meeting” at the Palau de la Generalitat with representatives of Tragsa and the Ministry of Education to analyze “all actions”.
At the end of the meeting, the Minister of Education, Culture, Universities and Employment, Jose Antonio Roviraassured that the collapse was “unforeseeable” and that it occurred while employees were performing on a porch outside the building.
In this sense, he emphasized that “At no time was there any report that the building was in danger of collapsing.“.
Mourning in Moixent
Pascual’s death shocked his town, of just over 4,000 inhabitants and located about 70 kilometers from Massanassa.
The municipal council showed its “condolences and solidarity” and sent “the most sincere support and affection to the family in these very painful times”.
In addition, he conveyed “a message of encouragement” to his family and offered “full availability for whatever may be necessary.” This Monday, a minute of silence was requested as a sign of mourning and the flags will be at half-mast for the coming days.
Pascual was a great fan of the bullfighting world and a fan of bous al carrer, the typical bullfighting celebrations of the Valencian Community. The collective Bou i Corda de Moixent mourned the death of his neighbor and posted an image of Pascual at the municipal festivals on his social networks.
“Bou i Corda deeply regrets the death of our friend and colleague Pascual López Martínez. A reference in the bullfighting world, particularly in Moixent. “We are dismayed by this sad news.”
The group conveyed “our deepest condolences to his wife, his daughters and his family, as well as to all his friends”. “We will always remember you as a great bull enthusiast. Thank you for all the good times. Rest in peace.”
“He was a very good colleague for me, a very good friend. For him, the first thing has always been his family, that they are well, that’s why I know that wherever he is, he will watch over you.. Rest in peace partner, we will always remember you,” one of his friends responded to the previous post.
Investigation
The National Police took charge of the case and the investigation will determine the causes of the event.
The mayor of Massanassa, Paco comesof the PP, explained about the collapse that the Town Hall “has neither contracted with Tragsa nor is it responsible for the moment for what happened”.
“We are informed, initially, that architects from the Ministry of Education will come to assess the damage and it is these technicians who make the reports to see if the work that must be done in the schools and if they are of greater or lesser magnitude,” he responded to questions from the media.
Currently, two educational centers in Massanassa – CEIP Lluís Vives and Ausiàs March – are classified at the “red” level and, therefore, students have been transferred to Valencia and Alcàsser.
However, at the IES of Massanassa courses are already given and they even host a Catarroja training course, because this institute “This only required power supply work“.
State in which the Massanassa school was located.
“All this work is carried out, I repeat, by the ministry, which is ultimately responsible for the educational centers,” he stressed.
Paco Comes indicated that the Town Hall “does not make technical reports, because this is not its responsibility” and confirmed that it published a statement on November 7 urging the population not to enter the school.
“But not because we had a report that we did or we knew the infrastructure was bad or not. The ministry has that.”
Concretely, that day, on the town hall’s social networks, the warning was made public: “As a precautionary measure, the entire population is prohibited from accessing the Lluís Vives and Ausiàs March schools, given the warning of possible demolition.“.
Likewise, he explained that “obviously the school is a center that will have to be built anew, even if it has nothing to do with the red level.” “The red level is due to the fact that courses cannot be held there. This is why (the students), at the moment, are being relocated.”
The mayor stressed that “the final report which will say if the school, with certainty, will have to be built again, will arrive”.
“Therefore, we as a city council have no certificates, no reports drawn up by us or anything, because we are not obliged to do so.”
The main question surrounding this death is why Pascual and his partner were cleaning a center that had to be demolished due to the effects of DANA.
Cleaning work
When asked if he was informed that work was going to be carried out at the school where the accident was noted, the first mayor replied that two weeks ago the Department “indicated that they are beginning to work on an initial assessment of the damage caused to each school throughout the area affected by DANA.“.
“They tell me that they will have to assess the damage, but it depends on the ministry, and then they contract with Tragsa to work; this is an issue that we are not aware of”
In fact, he explained that this work is not coordinated at Cecopal. Asked about the councilor’s statements that professionals were carrying out cleaning tasks, the mayor replied: “I cannot assure you of that, because ultimately, we have spent the last three weeks asking for things.”
“The Town Hall has neither contracted with Tragsa nor is it responsible for what happened“, insisted the municipal councilor, who once again regretted “deeply” the misfortune of the deceased worker.
“We know (the school) is bad, we tell people not to go in and we signal the local police and we ask the ministry to put up fences… It must be said to avoid, but we don’t know how damaged this structure is, because we’re not the ones who have to do it,” he reiterated.
At this point he recalled that on the day of DANA he issued a statement suspending all his activities.
“There were no children in the sports center or any other activities that were done on a daily basis. We did it because we thought we had to and I think we saved lives.”
The first mayor asked us to await the conclusions of the ongoing medical-judicial investigation into the circumstances of the accident.
Meanwhile, from the PSOE, José Munozspokesperson for the Corts Valencianes, considered it “obvious” that Pascual’s death was “avoidable”, given that the situation in the center was “in danger of collapse” and entry was “prohibited “.
“Was it really unforeseeable that this could happen? From my point of view, I don’t think so,” he defended himself in an interview with In Punt.
