On Monday, April 24, 2023, a fire broke out in the Iron Mountain warehouses, in Barracas, in the same place where the tragedy occurred that ended with 10 deaths, including 8 firefighters, in 2014. Fifteen days after this last fire, the Firefighters are still working in the area where the flames occurred and access was not enabled due to the danger of collapse. Therefore, the causes that produced it are unknown.
The process of extinguishing the flames of the fire willconclude this week, according to Clarín from the Criminal Prosecutor's Office Contravencional y de Faltas No. 30, in charge of Diego Espada. The brigades are specifically focused on cooling tasks at the site where the fire broke out. But to determine the reasons for the fire - and whether it was intentional or accidental - will have to wait longer.
As sources from the prosecutor's office explained, access to more security cameras on the premises is still lacking. Those in charge of the expert reports are not yet authorized to enter the burned warehouse because the work to cool the area has not ended.
The area is still inaccessible due to the danger of collapse. Photo Luciano Thieberger.
For its part, the Emergency Guard has not allowed entry to the site due to the danger of more collapses of walls and ceilings.
Unlike 2014, the event that occurred on April 24 did not leave fatalities, although it did generate the fall of several walls of the establishment, especially those that were located on Quinquela Martín and Jovellanos. These walls fell on top of at least three cars parked on the public road.
The Iron Mountain depot on Tuesday. Photo Luciano Thieberger.
So far, firefighters continue to work in the area of Azara at 1200, on the block where the Iron Mountain deposits sit.
The Iron Mountain fire in 2014
In 2014, the eight dead firefighters had been trapped under a wall that fell on top of them. This is because the spread of the flames caused the metal structure (columns and cabriadas) that supported the roof to begin to give way due to the high temperatures and the wall collapsed on Jovellanos Street, which caused that large number of deaths.
The event took the life of the inspector commissioner, Leonardo Day; the sub-inspector, Anahí Garnica; corporals Carlos Veliz, Eduardo Adrián Conesa and Maximiliano Martínez; and agent Juan Matías Monticelli (of the First Fire Station of the Federal Police).
Also killed were volunteer firefighters Sebastián Ezequiel Campos and Facundo Ricardo Ambrosi (Vuelta de Rocha barracks); and Civil Defense rescuers Pedro Esteban Barícola and José Méndez Araujo.
Among the defendants in the case are directors of the company and former officials of the General Directorate of Supervision and Control of the Buenos Aires government; there is also an Iron Mountain security employee who was on duty when the fire broke out.
An act of vandalism that surprised everyone
On April 12 of this year, Judge Fabiana Palmaghini decided to raise to oral trial the case against the 18 involved in the fire in which 10 firefighters and rescuers died in the fire that occurred on February 5, 2014. Twelve days later, this new fire occurred.
The not minor fact that surprised lawyers of the relatives of the victims of 2014 was that before the fire of April 24, 2023 there was an episode of vandalism of a deposit denounced by the directors of the company: this fact was established on April 19.
Photo images of the vandalized depot at Iron Mountain.
The letter that was sent to the Justice is signed by the representatives of the directors of Iron Mountain, Héctor García and Guillermo Lockhart.
According to the document, to which Clarín had access, the lawyers state that in the middle of a rat control process on April 19, 2023, it was verified that the deposit had been vandalized.
Photo images of the vandalized depot at Iron Mountain.
Likewise, it was found that the sidewalks on Azara and Quinquela Martín streets were broken and deteriorated. All the material was revealed in photographic images of the place of the act.
MG
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