The five minutes of silence with which yesterday the city of Valencia honored the victims of the devastating fire in the Campanar neighborhood were broken with applause for Julián, the caretaker of the building who helped save dozens of residents. “I helped people down as much as I could, as much as my hands allowed me while the smoke left me.” This man didn’t stop knocking door to door until the firemen sent him to stop.
He doesn’t remember how many times he went up and down the parallel staircase to the 12th floor, but he does remember the impact of opening the door to apartment 72, which is just below apartment 86, where he went start the fire: “A blaze came!” He grabbed with all his strength the neighbor inside, an elderly woman, and pulled her out as best he could. The situation was repeated in another apartment, where a man in a wheelchair resided. “There was black smoke coming down and the firemen shouted at me: ‘Julián, don’t go up any more'”. It was then that the janitor stayed in the courtyard of the building. There the firemen placed two ventilators.
The situation got worse as the flames grew: “The boards of the building were falling and I had to get into a corner of the emergency door. I was scared.” Crossing to the other side and getting out of danger was not at all easy when the smoke covered everything and the fire was devouring the building where he has worked for the last 15 years. “They told me I’m on vacation.” Now he does not think about his future work.
After working in the building for so long, Julián knew many of the families. When they meet again, they thank him for his courage in those critical moments. Manuel Fandos, one of the owners relocated to the Valencia Palace hotel, explained that thanks to the heroic action of his doorman, many residents left the building in time.
Like Fandos, yesterday there were 119 residents rehoused in the hotel waiting for the aid and housing made available by the City Council for those affected. There are 99 adults and 15 minors who got away with what they were wearing and who now have to rebuild their lives after seeing their belongings and memories burned.
