Early Sunday morning a devastating fire broke out, leaving 13 dead and 24 injured. The Atalayas de Murcia leisure area, which includes the Teatre, Golden and Fonda premises, burned in flames during one of its parties. At the moment, three of the deceased have been identified by their fingerprints, while the rest must be through DNA tests due to the level of calcination of the bodies.
An event that has recalled those that occurred in 1983 in a nightclub in Madrid, with 81 people dead, and in 1990, in Zaragoza, with 43 dead. Given this, and despite the fact that the prevention measures adopted work in most cases, a firefighter wanted to go to the Let’s see program to give the keys on how to act in this situation.
“In principle I would give two pieces of advice, the one before and the one after an attempt has started,” Raúl Esteban, chief of firefighters and civil protection of Alcorcón, began to relate. And, as he said, we must be very aware of how to act before something like this can happen: “We are not in the habit of protecting ourselves.”
The firefighter has put on the table that most people tend to run out through the same entrance through which they came to the event. Something that should be avoided at all costs. “We are not going to know what the emergency exits are if we do not look at them and that would have given a great chance of life to many people,” he assured.
One of the worst aids in this case is the panic that spreads in this type of situation, therefore, it must be controlled. “The greater the panic, the greater the heart rate, the greater the breathing, the greater the consumption of monoxide,” she said. “Try to relax, try to bend down and if we know the evacuation routes try to go towards them because the rest will go to the exit where they entered,” he added.
Although authorities have been focused on finding those missing during the tragedy, now comes the time to find out what could have happened. “It is difficult to determine the causes of the fire because the building has collapsed. There must have been a lot of fuel and, therefore, it left the premises in ashes,” continued Raúl Esteban.
Given the firefighter’s words, Patricia Pardo has had a key question cross her mind to be able to get out before everything collapses. “What do we do if you find yourself in a situation like this and at the moment there is only smoke?” asked the presenter.
Raúl Esteban is clear: “It is a very extreme situation. A nightclub at 1 in the morning is not the same as it is at 6. And it is not the same whether it happens on the ground floor or the top floor. The best thing is to bend down as much as you can because the smoke is going to occupy the entire structure of the building.
