Despite the mask, the smell of combustion was still perceived on 17th and Q streets, in the southern suburb of Guayaquil. There, on the morning of this Wednesday the 3rd, the residents of that area where a clandestine addiction treatment center was affected by a fire still considered what they had experienced in that place the night before to be a tragedy.
In one of the houses surrounding the property, Dora Vera, a resident of the area, said that her daughter and son-in-law were playing cards outside the property when she began to perceive the smell of burning. After that, they observed the flames in the windows of the center and began to run away from the site for fear that the fire spread to their home.
In the midst of desperation, Vera said that a cook from the site had tried to open the security to rescue several of the deceased, but was unsuccessful.
After several minutes, the firefighters opened the property and managed to control the fire, even with the support of neighbors. Upon entering the rooms of the building, they verified the tragic episode.
As a result of the fire inside the treatment center, seven young people between the ages of 18 and 25 died, at least four of them with burns and the others due to inhalation of toxic gases.
“Last night we couldn’t sleep for fear that something would be on, scared is not enough,” said the resident Vera.
That night, one of the neighbors, Lisaura Peñafiel, said that she found out about the bleak scene when she returned from spending a few days relaxing in Vinces after the long carnival holiday.
In twelve years as a resident of the area, she had not experienced a similar situation, observing a panorama of sadness due to the arrival of relatives who came to ask for news about the inmates. “A chaos, a stress, I still haven’t assimilated, I went through there well and arrived with this novelty. It is something desperate, those poor young people end up like this…”, lamented the neighbor who lives in front of the place.
The center that operated about seven months ago as a supposed foundation, according to neighbors, who highlighted the good relationship that was maintained with the administrators of the space.
After the fact, this Wednesday morning, different entities such as Firefighters and the Municipality came to inspect the property and then to place closure seals for the respective start of administrative sanctioning processes.
At the site they verified the presence of a room that had a metal door similar to those used in prisons. This is how the zonal coordinator 8 of the Agency for Quality Assurance of Health Services and Prepaid Medicine (Acess), Guillermo del Pozo, narrated.
He stated that the site showed a foundation facade that had no registration with the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion or with the health entity, so it operated clandestinely without health regulations and poor waste management.
The official urged citizens to support more in complaints about the operation of centers without permits, since two to three properties that operate clandestinely are detected every month. “If we close this center today, tomorrow they will open two or three later,” he said and urged the representatives of these sites to regulate their operating situation with the proper parameters.
Del Pozo said that in all the intervention operations of clandestine centers they present the outpatient and face-to-face offer to relatives of inmates, but “unfortunately” they resist receiving this type of help.
Currently, in Guayaquil, the first type of care is offered in health units and the second class in eight qualified sites, three from the Ministry of Health, one municipal and four private.
“In order to act efficiently, we need the will, because you know that no one can be detained against their will,” he emphasized and estimated that only Guayaquil, based on consumption statistics, the current number of centers would need at least of 20 rehabilitation centers.
So far this year, Acess records six closures of sites that operate clandestinely without the proper permits. Only last year there were about 20 closures. For now, the exact number of spaces that work under this modality cannot be determined, said Del Pozo. “If I don’t have a complaint, I can’t act because they don’t know where they are, because of the very term: clandestine,” he said.
Presence of relatives of deceased inmates in the morgue
During the morning of this Wednesday, relatives of several of the deceased attended the morgue.
Relatives of Víctor Parrales, 25, said that he wanted to rehabilitate himself from the addiction problem without imagining the tragic end.
Ángel Ochoa, close to Parales, considered that the authorities investigate the causes of this emergency and that the controls be more rigorous to avoid new scenarios. “It’s not fair that they die like dogs,” Ochoa said.
“We are outraged that a fire for seven people has spread so effectively that no one has done anything, it makes my head spin to know what really happened,” said Katherine Ochoa, sister-in-law of the deceased young man.
The Municipality will impose a fine of seven basic salaries ($ 2,800) for the lack of a land use permit, highlighted Justice and Surveillance personnel. This item will be charged to the property taxes of the owner of the property. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
