When the Chilean Fire Commander Fernando Cuevas called First Lieutenant Alejandro Artigas, of the First Company of Santiago, at six in the morning on September 11, 1973 to order him that the night guard team remain in the barracks until further notice, Artigas, 24, a law student at the University of Chile, told him that he had a test that day. That some should go to class and others to work. “The order is clear. No one retires,” Cuevas responded. The lieutenant, without knowing the reason for the mandate, complied and passed on the message to the 12 men he was in charge of.
Artigas, now 74 years old, affirms that –evidently– there was no plan for what happened that day. “We didn’t have any different information than the rest of the people. And therefore, we never put ourselves on the scene of a bombing of La Moneda”, explains the honorary director of the institution in a room at the Santiago Fire Department Headquarters.
Before recounting how he became the first firefighter to enter the Government Palace after the bombing by the military and why he was one of the few members of the institution who saw President Salvador Allende, he remarks that the body is voluntary, made up of civil, disciplined, where there is no commitment other than service. “We work with the authorities, regardless of their sign. And in the case of September 11, that was clearly reflected. In all the companies there were people from the left, center and right, but on the street, not inside the force. That day everyone kept strict respect ”, points out Artigas, who over the years became elected captain, commander and superintendent of the institution in which he has spent more than half a century.
Blinded by information, the firefighters of the first company turned on the radio. They tuned in to the government and the opposition in search of clues. At eight in the morning, everyone was aware of a military movement much more powerful than that seen in the coup attempt on June 29, the tank shot. When they heard the military threaten to bomb the government palace if Allende did not hand over power, Artigas gathered the volunteers he was in charge of in the machine rooms.
Aware that there was a mixture of different political colors, the lieutenant invited those with personal concerns to request to leave the barracks. “But once the alarm is raised and we have to get out, nobody backs down,” he warned. None of the volunteers, all single between the ages of 18 and 28, excused themselves. “We were all scared to death, but we said ‘it’s impossible for them to bomb it, it’s a threat.’ We did not imagine war planes bombing something and with what calculation”, says Artigas, whose company was four blocks from La Moneda.
At about 10:30 in the morning, Allende’s historic and last speech was given and shortly after, around noon, the bombardment began. From a small window in the barracks, the volunteers from the first company saw a flash and seconds later heard the roar. “There we did say: it is a fact, there is a war situation, the shots were heard everywhere.” The firefighter remembers the integrity of his colleagues, but also the concern, not only for them, but also for their families, their jobs and their political positions. “Nobody knew where that was going to go. If it was going to last a month or the 17 years it lasted. We had no idea who Mr. Pino was… how much? He had been appointed commander in chief, but we hardly knew who he was,” he adds.
They watched as the flames consumed the palace and listened to the sound of machine guns. Did they feel powerless for not being able to go out? “We felt a sense that we were not doing what we needed to do. Later we found out that the Santiago Military Garrison was coordinating with the commander that firefighters go out to put out the fires once the situation was under control so that we would not be cannon fodder”, points out Artigas, who had been in service for seven years at the time.
At 2:55 p.m., the plant gave the order to leave. The Santiago fire brigade attended to the fire at La Moneda, the Socialist Party building and the house of President Allende on Tomás Moro street, among others. Some nine companies went to the Government Palace. Within a minute, Artigas’ team was entering through the door at Morandé 80, which later remained closed for decades. “There was total chaos. Some gave one order, others another.” Lieutenant Artigas, the first to enter to define an action plan, saw how the fire was “absolutely total” on the second floor, there was practically no roof left in the north zone. The opening to the sky allowed smoke not to accumulate, but despite the hour, the darkness of the sky made vision difficult.
After an hour of work, the captain of the first company arrived to assume the leadership role. The first hours consisted of putting out the violent fire, with many shots around, in different buildings in the area, says Artigas. In the midst of the stress, firefighters and the military spread the word through the corridors that Allende was dead. When the lieutenant was on the second floor, they asked the fire department to illuminate the Independence Hall, where the president had taken his own life.
Artigas’s company did not have the fire lights, so a volunteer from another company delivered them. “He kid he was at the door of the hall tremendously affected. I offered him help. They are those things that one is not aware of why he does them, it did not correspond to me, it was almost out of all protocol ”, he points out. He took the focus and entered.
They required the light because they had requested that a journalist film the scene. There was General Javier Palacios, who was the one who gave the orders, a fire captain, and several soldiers. “I couldn’t say who, because that day the uniforms had no degree. You looked and you didn’t know if he was a corporal or a colonel. They were wearing colored bracelets,” recalls Artigas. “It was a gruesome scene. A sepulchral silence”. He recounts that he lay dead on a sofa, dressed in a turtleneck and canvas pants. He saw the rifle between his legs and his glasses on the floor. The firefighter had the three judicial statements that he made before the democratic justice system corrected, so that every time Allende was named, they would put “President Allende.” “Because I am a firefighter. Neither here nor there. Alejandro Artigas is another story ”, he affirms.
When he returned to work, the then lieutenant confesses that he wondered what he was doing there, who had sent him. He heard rumors that troops were coming to defend the government and together with his colleagues they thought they were going to be “the ham in the sandwich.”
At 10:00 p.m., Commander Cuevas ordered the 200 volunteers who were in the building to leave. There were no llamas left, but they knew that the next day they had to return. Weeks later, recalls Artigas, he was still seeing smoke coming out of La Moneda.
Artigas, who lived in the barracks when he was young until he got married, today is the father of four, grandfather of three, and his eyes shine like a child with a new toy when he talks about the work of his institution, his home. The level of commitment and service put to the test on the 11th – 50 years ago – continues to be seen in every major event that shakes the South American country and where firefighters have to intervene.
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