«At ground zero, in the Barranco del Pollo there was everything, from large furniture dragged by DANA to stacked cars; dead animals… you found anything… we were looking for corpses; we arrived just after They will find the body of a child 5 years«. In this way, the Fire Department of the Provincial Council of Córdoba Antonio Ramírez passed through the Valencian towns hit by DANA such as Alfafar or Paiporta, still overwhelmed by the catastrophe in the aid work of this team of twelve volunteer firefighters from Cordoba.
«We have moved 13 people to Valencia, with three heavy vehiclesone command and one light. We arrived on Tuesday evening, to perform for three days in a row, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; We returned to Córdoba this afternoon and another team takes over; “We have come back with the feeling that we would have continued staying there to help,” says this Firefighter commander.
This firefighter – with 14 years of experience – tells from the vehicle that brings them back to Córdoba that they arrived last Tuesday welcomed by the Real Club Náutico de Valenciawhere they have been treated “luxury”, although their days surrounded by mud were from 6 in the morning until late at night.
«Our actions were marked every day by the advanced command posts, ours on the first day was that of Alicante. From there they demanded actions from us and later from the COMBE command post, which is a national service center of which the Provincial Council of Córdoba is a part, and the presidency, which is rotating, this year is from Malaga.
«The first mission they gave us was Alfafar (Valencia) right next to Valencia, and the objective was to remove water from two basement floors from the MM4 Shopping Center there thank God and after all day performing with the UME the Madrid City Council “We did not find bodies,” 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 in the end none was found,” he continued. From that town they went on to search in so-called “tracking” tasks in the Albufera area, in ground zero, where it was most likely – there were also canine units there – that bodies of some missing people would be found. Unfortunately, this Friday afternoon the body of a 5-year-old child was found in the Barranco del Pollo.
«The images where the UME command post was was catastrophic, heavy equipment and materials, cars, we were wearing masks because of the strong smell because there were also devastated farms and cattle that had drowned; “You could find furniture and there was a chance of finding more dead people,” this team leader recalled.
The neighbors began 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 made us a paellaat an impasse. The basement of these houses were devastated, the marker On the walls they marked more than two meters high where the mud had reached,” Ramírez said.
«It is very painful to see how there were families that have lost everything… those who least have lost their home, but others have lost their lives or those of their relatives; it is difficult to foresee magnitude of what could have happened, the alerts to evacuate the area came too late for them, the evacuation time was not enough,” said this firefighter from the Provincial Institution.
Light has been lost even in municipalities where water has not entered; many remain without light as Paiporta or Albal. “We have come across a man who was saved by his neighbors with a rope that they threw with a noose so that he could put it in his arms and thus he was able to save himself but just barely,” he explained.
For Ramírez, “the image wherever you look is devastating, this Firefighter’s command has reported, the most vulnerable are the elderly because they have all taken the children from ground zero, there are no children.”
One week later: Long lines for food or water
On the other hand, the elderly who have lost everything wander around looking for food. «An old woman who approached me asking for food… there are many stalls with aids that come from volunteers who distribute food and water but, for example, in Paiporta there are long lines asking for food or water every day,” lamented this member of the Córdoba Firefighters Consortium.
On a positive note, for this firefighter who has returned home with his team and where his woman and her 5 year old twins«no one can say that this youth is unsupportive; I have seen how kids have not stopped helping in the most affected areas as volunteers, you see them carrying buckets, rakes… they offer food. Young people have completely turned to it.”
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