"At half past five on Saturday morning, when I arrived here, I walked home without even changing my clothes, and when my grandmother, who is my mom, saw me, she collapsed in my arms."
This is how Ernesto Moreno, a thin boy with a noble look, tells it. His eyes blurred several times as he recalls what he experienced the first night of the fire at the Supertanker Base.
He has not returned to the disaster area after that day. The mission entrusted to him, together with other soldiers and officers, was to maintain the vitality of Command No. 1 of Matanzas, to which he belongs, in order to be able to face any other incident.
Next to him, while we talk, is Juan Carlos Hernandez, who introduces himself as an operator of the extinguishing technique (the tank car), with 20 years of work in the Ministry of the Interior.
Juan Carlos is not a man of many words, but what he says is enough: "What we lived through cannot be explained. It was a hard moment, we wanted to do and we couldn't; we saw the cars and our colleagues collapse, no matter how much I tell you I won't be able to describe it".
-Any injuries?
-No.
Ernesto points to his knees.
-Well, yes, but it's nothing.
On the contrary, Ernesto narrates with the precision of one who prefers details, something that makes sense when he reveals he will be majoring in History. "We arrived at six o'clock in the afternoon, we immediately began to deploy, to try to put out the first tank. Many more technicians started arriving, even from other provinces".
He is 19 years old, and in this three-way conversation, he says he is doing his military service as a firefighter, "by choice and because I like it."
"At nine o'clock at night, the ring of the first tank collapses and the crude starts to come out, the first explosion occurs, but we all manage to run away. That's when Juan Carlos hurt his knees in the escape; but after ten minutes we returned, we picked up everything as we had left it, and we continued".
At ten past four in the morning, Ernesto, who was loading on top of the truck, got off and got into the car to "freshen up," because it had already been more than ten hours of work.
"After about five minutes, the first tank cracked, there was a huge flare and that's when we started trying to get out." By then "all the people who ran out had advanced about 20 meters. We were 40 meters from the first tank and 15 meters from the second.
-And what did it feel like at that moment?
Ernesto lowers his gaze, keeps silent, looks again into my eyes:
-"You don't feel anything.
"The first explosion occurs. I look, in five or eight seconds everything turns blinding white and I put my head in the car.
"When I look out again, the second tank had already exploded and all the flame was coming out.
The second tank had already exploded and all the flame was coming, it was on top of us, we were on top of it".
Ernesto's voice cracks when he talks about those three firemen, whom he did not know, and whom he saw from afar trying to escape, without succeeding. The way he remembers and narrates it touches his heart: "The flames reached them and they kept running, but they fell down exhausted, overwhelmed.
"Next to us were parked two cars, which flew over the tanks. There was a lot of screaming..."
He pauses, swallows and says: "If it weren't for Juan Carlos I wouldn't be alive." Then he looks at him and hugs him. They could perfectly be grandfather and grandson, and it is evident that the bond that unites them forever is just as strong.
"He would not be alive without the mettle he showed at the helm. We knew of his skill, but to see him there, under that pressure, there is nothing like it."
At the time of the stampede, four people were in the tanker car; when they arrived at Supertanker Command No. 2, about ten got out. In the frantic race for survival, people climbed as best they could onto the moving vehicles. It was a matter of seconds. Retelling it takes longer, much longer.
Several of his Station were burned, but no one was lost. He knows several of the missing. His voice trails off.
Then we talk about how he has been in the Military Service for six months, how after comforting his grandmother he picked up his cell phone and had hundreds of calls and messages, about the solidarity of the people "who have been so good to us".
-And after this experience, do you still like being a firefighter?
-No, I want to be something else.
While this conversation was going on, the fire was still raging.
-What if you were called right now to go back to the Supertanker Base?
-I would go, but I'm not allowed to go back.
-So, even if you don't want to become a firefighter?
He is surprised, his eyes widen, almost annoyed.
-No, but I do; I told you "I don't want to be something else". I'm going to study my career, but after that I'm going to be a firefighter.
Translated by ESTI
