One year after the tragic fire in a warehouse in Badalona (with four dead and dozens injured), we have to regret a new misfortune, this time in Barcelona, on the ground floor of the Plaza de Tetuan. A place that was not just an abandoned house, but an old bank office. With the same number of fatalities, with the added drama of two young minors among them, and with four more people affected by the smoke caused by the fire, the incident once again challenges us as a society. “They lived in unacceptable conditions,” said the Minister of the Interior Joan Ignasi Elena, in a block in which there had been different altercations in recent months and in which, on the very night of the events, a few hours before, there had been a coexistence incident between neighbors in which the Mossos had to intervene.
The scene of the incident was part of the occupied spaces in Barcelona, according to a police report following the aforementioned Badalona fire, with a list of about 40 premises or ships in a highly dangerous situation. At the same time, it is the case that the family affected by the fire had long been cared for by the Social services from the town hall, with medical and food aid and with the schooling of the eldest son. It is not, therefore, an unknown case, but was under the radar of municipal protection, which adds a point of confusion to the tragedy. The fact that the victims had not asked for help before, as argued by the city council, is insufficient justification for the administration to rule out offering them a alternative housing, if he knew his situation. The circumstances have yet to be clarified, but on the coldest night this fall and in the environment in which the victims lived, everything suggests that, as happened in Badalona, the fire could be due to the need to heat a home that did not it met the minimum conditions to qualify as such. The tragic event in the Plaza de Tetuan once again shows that extreme poverty kills.
The problems in this case tell us at least two things. That the monitoring of critical situations, with the work of those who assume responsibilities to lessen the effects of homelessness, Unfortunately, it does not ensure total protection for people with precarious lives, in the absence of adequate means to provide effective solutions. And that, as a society, we cannot afford the indignity of a context that, as has happened now, becomes a death trap. It is known that at least another 865 people live in shacks, warehouses and premises in Barcelona like the family who died yesterday. If the answer is only the lament for the tragedy, it falls short. n
Reference-www.elperiodico.com