“At Ground Zero, in Barranco del Pollo, there was everything from large pieces of furniture dragged by DANA to stacked cars; dead animals… you found anything… we were looking for corpses; “We arrived just after they found the body of a 5-year-old boy.” Thus, the fire department of Provincial Council of Córdoba Antonio Ramírez crossed the Valencian towns affected by DANA such as Alfafar or Paiporta, still overwhelmed by the disaster in the humanitarian work of this team of twelve volunteer firefighters from Córdoba.
“We transferred 13 people to Valencia, including three heavy vehiclesa control and a light. We arrived Tuesday evening, to play three days in a row, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; We returned to Cordoba this afternoon and another team takes over; “We came back with the feeling that we would have continued to stay there to help,” says this fire commander.
This firefighter – with 14 years of experience – tells from the vehicle that takes them back to Córdoba that they arrived last Tuesday welcomed by the Real Club Náutico de Valencewhere they were treated as “luxury,” even though their days surrounded by mud lasted from 6 a.m. until late at night.
“Our actions were marked every day by the forward command posts, ours on the first day was that of Alicante. From there, they demanded actions from us and later from the command post of the COMBE, which is a national service center of which the Provincial Delegation of Cordoba is part, and whose presidency, which is rotating, is this year from Málaga.
“The first mission they gave us was Alfafar (Valencia), right next to Valencia, and the objective was to evacuate the water from two basement floors from the MM4 shopping center, thank goodness, and after all day playing with the UME, the Madrid City Hall “We have not found a body,” said this commander.
In another of these missions with the Fuengirola firefighters “We evacuated the locker rooms where there was a possibility of finding a victim but ultimately none was found,” he continued. From this city, they carried out so-called “scouting” searches in the Albufera area, at Ground Zero, where it was most likely – there were also canine units – that the bodies of some missing people would be found . Unfortunately, this Friday afternoon, the body of a 5-year-old child was found in Barranco del Pollo.
“The images where the EMU command post was located were catastrophic, heavy equipment and equipment, cars, we wore masks because of the strong smell because there was also devastated farms and livestock that had drowned; “We could find furniture and there was a chance of finding other dead people,” remembers this team leader.
The neighbors started to cry when they saw us working there in their houses, in their streets, they thanked us every day for the help we could give them, on Thursday the neighbors gave us a paellain a dead end. The basements of these houses were devastated, the markings on the walls indicated at more than two meters high where the mud had reached,” Ramírez said.
“It is very painful to see that there are families who have lost everything… those who have lost their homes the least, but others have lost their lives or those of their loved ones; it’s difficult to predict magnitude of what could have happened, the alerts to evacuate the premises arrived too late for them, the evacuation time was not sufficient”, declared this firefighter from the Provincial Establishment.
Light was lost even in municipalities where water did not enter; many remain without light while Paiporta or Albal. “We met a man who was saved by his neighbors with a rope which they threw with a noose so that he could put it in his arms and thus he was able to save himself, but only barely,” a- he explained.
For Ramírez, “the image everywhere you look is devastating, reported the fire command, the most vulnerable are the elderly because they took all the children from Ground Zero, there are no children “.
A week later: long lines for food or water
On the other hand, elderly people who have lost everything wander in search of food. “An old woman who came up to me asking for food… there are a lot of stalls with AIDS which come from volunteers who distribute food and water but, for example, in Paiporta there are long queues every day to ask for food or water”, lamented this member of the Córdoba Firefighters Consortium.
On a positive note, for this firefighter who returned home with his team and where his wife and 5-year-old twins are waiting for him, “no one can say that this young person is unfavorable; I saw how children did not stop helping in the most affected areas as volunteers, we see them carrying buckets, rakes… they offer food. Young people have completely turned to it. »
