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LATAM: Negligence, Safety Violations, Impunity to Blame for Disasters
By Diana Cariboni*
MONTEVIDEO, Aug 6 (IPS) - Catastrophes on the scale of Sunday's fire in a
supermarket in Paraguay are not a product of unfortunate coincidences and
unlucky timing, in which a bunch of people with terribly bad luck end up
trapped in a tragedy.
At least in poor regions like Latin America, and sometimes even in the
industrialised North, they tend to be the result of negligence, safety code
and building violations, lack of enforcement, and impunity that come
together
in an explosive mix, according to experts.
The death toll from the blaze in the Ykuá Bolaños supermarket in
Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, has climbed to at least 464.
What could have been a manageable disaster turned into a scene of horror
due to a number of factors.
The store's two owners - father and son - as well as eight managers and
other employees have been arrested and face charges of locking the doors
when the fire broke out, to keep people from leaving with merchandise
without paying.
And the severely under-funded volunteer corps of firefighters that came
to put out the fire - the only professional firefighters in Asunción belong
to the national police, and work at the international airport - had only
one source of water, which took an hour to even begin working.
The flames spread throughout the building in a question of minutes,
indicating the poor quality of the construction, incompliance with safety
standards, or both.
Asunción city councillor and town planner Luis Alberto Boh told IPS that
if the supermarket had been built in full compliance with the
city statutes, the fire would not have broken out, or would have been
swiftly controlled.
But due to corruption, which he described as ''an endemic ill'' in
Paraguay, ''there are no safety guarantees in buildings,'' he added.
A similar set of factors came together in Peru on Dec. 29, 2001, when an
enormous fire broke out in a crowded informal market area known as Mesa
Redonda in the old Lima neighbourhood of Cercado where fireworks were sold
for the year-end holidays.
Just a few days earlier two fires had broken out among the street stalls
and narrow galleries, but were immediately controlled by firefighters.
However, nothing was done to modify the complete lack of safety
conditions in the commercial centre, which was a powder-keg due to the tons
of imported fireworks stored haphazardly and handled and sold by people with
absolutely no training, even children in many cases.
Earlier fires had also been caused there by exploding fireworks, in 1991
and 1997. The latter claimed seven lives.
But on that tragic day in late 2001, it occurred to someone to test a
firecracker, which went off amidst boxes of fireworks, triggering an
explosion that led to one of the worst tragedies in the history of Peru.
It took several hours to get the flames, which destroyed five city
blocks, under control, as firecrackers went off madly in all directions and
the gunpowder fed the blaze.
The Lima emergency operations centre reported 280 dead, 785 missing -
many of the charred remains were impossible to identify - and 218 injured.
The disaster was aggravated by ''a high-tension transformer that should
not have been there. When the fire broke out, it exploded, and the
electrical wiring electrocuted many people,'' accident prevention expert
Carlos Musse, with the Emergency Brigades Training Centre in Peru, told IPS.
Although the firefighters saved many lives, the chaos and lack of
organisation conspired against the rescue and firefighting efforts, he said
in an e-mail interview from Lima.
Has anything been learned from the disaster? The government of Alejandro
Toledo banned imports of pyrotechnic products shortly after the disaster,
but they continue entering the country as contraband, he said.
In addition, ''fire extinguishers have been placed in Mesa Redonda, along
with signs providing emergency instructions, and storage of pyrotechnic
materials there has been banned. However, there are many markets, and when
the authorities pull out, everything just goes back to as it was before,''
said Musse.
The safety standards and laws have not changed, he added. ''The only
thing that was done was to expand the budget for the firefighters, which
allowed
the purchase of new hoses.''
Awareness-raising campaigns have also been carried out to teach the
public how to use fire extinguishers, as well as evacuation techniques in
case of fires.
Experts stress that the first five minutes are crucial in minimising the
damages from a fire, and that a high level of organisation and coordination
is essential.
But ''no progress has been made'' along those lines, said Musse.
''Companies are supposed to have a trained anti-fire and prevention brigade,
but very few comply with that regulation. The authorities, especially the
firefighter corps, do not use a (centralised) command system to organise the
initial response.''
''No less than a dozen agencies intervene in an incident like the ones in
Mesa Redonda or the Ykuá Bolaños supermarket,'' he pointed out. ''Each one
has its own chiefs, its own organisational chart, equipment and rules. If
the command system is not applied, it is impossible to administer an
emergency.''
The sensation that nothing has changed since the Mesa Redonda catastrophe
was reinforced by the fact that no one was found responsible, despite the
presence of several tons of pyrotechnic material in the market that was not
authorised by the local agency in charge of overseeing civilian use of arms,
munitions and explosives.
''In the trial, no one was found guilty. Neither the mayor of Lima, nor
the officials who failed in their oversight role, the power company
(that had a transformer in an unauthorised zone), or the importer of the
fireworks,'' said Musse.
After the supermarket disaster in Paraguay, few are likely to feel safe
entering a shopping centre there.
In neighbouring Argentina, many large supermarkets provide manuals for
evacuation,
carry out fire drills, build special fire exits, and install ventilation.
The French-owned Carrefour chain offers assurances that of the 250 employees
in each of its hypermarkets in Argentina, 30 have received emergency
response training.
Nevertheless, there is a widespread conviction that the state fails to
enforce safety norms, especially due to corruption - such as a willingness
to take
bribes - among inspectors.
For example, in the December 1993 fire that swept through the Kheyvis
discotheque in Buenos Aires, the sparks and resulting fire were caused by
the negligence of the owners and the lack of enforcement of safety
standards.
Seventeen young people died and 24 were injured. The locale had neither
fire extinguishers, ventilation, nor suitable fire exits. And although it
was designed for a maximum of 150 people, 600 were packed in the dance hall
that night.
The courts held the owner, the building's architect, and a public
official responsible. But none of the 10 municipal inspectors who were
prosecuted were convicted, and the trial dragged on so long that the statute
of limitations expired for the crimes of which they were accused.
The popular Mexican night club Lobohombo, meanwhile, had already been
closed down a number of times for safety violations, and only had a single
exit open the night of Oct. 20, 2000, when a fire killed 22 patrons. When
the firefighters showed up, they found that the nearby fire hydrants were
not connected to any water source.
Survivors also said they were blocked from leaving by guards who
initially demanded that everyone show tickets proving that they had paid
their tabs.
The tragedy led to a wave of inspections of night clubs, a number of
which were shut down.
But a blaze in the La Guajira night club in Caracas has never been
clarified, nor did it lead to improved safety mechanisms. A total of 50
people died of burns or asphyxia, including 33 men and 17 young waitresses,
at least three of whom were under 18.
The fire, which occurred on Nov. 30, 2002, the eve of a general strike
against President Hugo Chávez, was virtually ignored by the private media,
which are openly opposed to the president and were focusing almost
exclusively on covering the anti-government stoppage.
The scant coverage of the tragedy was criticised by non-governmental
organisations that work for the rights of minors and against sexual
exploitation, because the mantle of silence that surrounded the catastrophe
helped those responsible get off scot-free.
''The bar lacked alarms and fire extinguishers and well-marked fire
exits, and there were more than 300 people there that night, although the
legal limit was 100,'' the chief of the firefighters, Rodolfo Briceño, said
at the time.
Is Latin America's underdevelopment to blame for the negligence?
''There have been flagrant cases of incompliance (with safety codes) in
all countries,'' including the United States and the nations of the European
Union, said Musse.
But ''in countries where living standards are lower, these kinds of
problems are more frequent. The worst problem is the lack of prevention
efforts'' on the part of business owners and the authorities, he said.
In 2002, flames swept through the Utopía discotheque in Lima, killing 29
people. The company had no municipal licence and it had received warnings of
its safety code violations. It had no fire extinguishers and the fire exits
were locked.
Only two employees were prosecuted. But ''the owners are responsible,
because they decided not to invest in the necessary basic safety
equipment,'' said
Musse. ''By any reckoning, only corruption could make the judges consider
them innocent.''
* With additional reporting from Marcela Valente (Argentina), Diego Cevallos
(Mexico) and Humberto Márquez (Venezuela).
(END/2004)
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