Villafranca de Ebro (Zaragoza) is currently a desolate town. The sadness is palpable in its streets. THE church It is usually not open on Fridays at four o’clock in the afternoon. However, the priest ordered that the doors remain open all day, in case anyone came to pray. In an instant, tragedy struck the local nursing home. At five o’clock in the morning this Friday, a fire in the said residence, still to be clarified, ended the life of ten people.
“Álvaro, I went to mass every Sunday”
From the place of The town hallwe can brilliantly see the tabernacle of the church of Santiago Apóstol. Its wide open doors are also a tribute to one of the elderly people who lost their life this morning due to the cloud of smoke coming from the fire that broke out in one of the rooms.
“Álvaro was a man who would every Sunday at mass. The people who were in the parish took him away, that’s what their relatives asked us to do,” explains one of the neighbors. “He had a great time,” she explains enthusiastically. .
“We are very sad. We knew him a lot. He left the residence and we accompanied him to mass,” he remembers. Next to this neighbor is another friend. They both talk in the town square, watching the entrance to the temple. In Villafranca de Ebro, we don’t talk about anything else. What else are we going to talk about?
Testimonies of the residence fire
One of the care workers at the residence describes her sadness while remembering the first moments since her arrival at the residence: “When I arrived all the cars were already there there, the ambulance, the Civil Guard, the Fire Brigade, attentive. When I worked there, I got to know the residents, I tried to give them all the help I could: accommodate them, shake their hands…”.
“My shift started at six in the morning. When I arrived there wasn’t much smoke outside. I could no longer access the interior. I stayed outside to help whoever I could,” he explains. “It’s nostalgic what happened. “I know these people and it’s a very mixed feeling, because at least, thank God, many of them were able to be saved.”
Currently, survivors are being treated in a new unused residence that the Government of Aragon has made available to them in Huesca. They will reside there until the situation returns to normal in the Villafranca gardens, where 69 people were detained, 25 to 90 years oldten of whom lost their lives. All were in this special residence which housed people with dementia and mental illness problems.
In addition, two of the detainees are at the Royo Villanueva Hospital, where they were urgently transferred due to the serious injuries they suffered. It’s a male 65 years in intensive care with a serious but stable prognosis, and another man 72 years old who remains under observation in the emergency room and is stable. However, residents of the town have not yet received more details on the identity of the deceased.
“They were part of the people”
“There was a group from the residence that would come out from time to time and we knew them in the city. They came to the barthey went for a walk, went shopping, bought the newspaper. Some even practiced Pilates with us. I think they’re okay. There was only one lady in the village,” he explains. “I was able to speak to the daughter-in-law and she told me she was fine.” “Some had been here for 14 years,” he explains.
LAST MINUTE 🚨
At least 10 dead in a fire in a retirement home in Villafranca del Ebro (Zaragoza)
Inform @PaulaCiordia ✍️
– okdiario.com (@okdiario) November 15, 2024
Another neighbor from the town, obviously very young, remembers with dismay what happened: “They pass through the town a lot. We know a lot of them. They go shopping, at the library. Finally, they are often found walking in the street. Some of them are one more neighbor in the city.
In the same way, the performance of the mayor of Villafranca de Ebro, Volga Ramirezit was total. She received an alert call from 112 at five in the morning warning her of what had happened. Without wasting time, Ramírez and her husband Carlos immediately went to the residence to try to prevent the smoke caused by the fire from suffocating the residents.
“There was no other. We did what we had to do to save them from the fire. We tried to get everyone out, including the workers of the residence and the neighbors who came to help them until the arrival of the firefighters, the Civil Guard, civil protection volunteers, psychologists, social workers and doctors from 061, as well as medical staff from the health centers in the towns of Alfajarín and Fuentes del Ebro,” he explains.
