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Different traditions when it comes to cemeteries
Discipline, Honor, Abnegation

Discipline, Honor, Abnegation
photos by Eric Jackson

Some weeks ago, this reporter noticed something strange going on a stone's throw from The Panama News office. The slab with the plaque marking the site of the El Polvorin explosion had been knocked down with a sledgehammer. At first glance, it was an inexcusable destruction of a public monument and an insult to the memory of Panama's fallen firefighters. But it turned out that what was happening was the creation of a larger memorial.

At about 2:00 a.m. on May 5, 1914, the bomberos from the Calidonia station were called out to a fire on the old Calle Tercera, along which the present-day Avenida Nacional runs, near the site of the present-day Hospital Santa Fe. The blaze spread from wooden building to wooden building, and a second alarm was called about an hour later.

What the bomberos didn't know was that there was an illegal fireworks factory in the way of the flames. The explosives detonated and firefighters Félix Antonio Álvarez, Luis De Basach, Juan Bautista Beltrán, Luis Buitrago, Faustino Rueda and Alonso Teleche lost their lives in the line of duty. The bomberos' Commander Darío Vallarino lost his leg. Also severely injured were Major Florencio Icaza, Captains Domingo Vásquez and Ernesto Arosemena, and Sergeants Zenón Ramírez y Francisco Diez. Dozens of other firefighters and civilians were also hurt.

The new monument, which still has some finishing touches to be installed, was dedicated on May 5, the date set aside ever since the El Polvorin Explosion to honor the sacrifices of Panama's firefighters.

The Cuerpo de Bomberos, founded in November of 1885 when this country was still part of Colombia, has a core of professional firefigthers and a larger group of volunteers. The bombero marching bands are a popular attraction during November's patriotic parades, and on or about November 28 there is a torchlight procession up Via España and Avenida Central to Plaza Cinco de Mayo that draws thousands of spectators along the route. A lot of the people who enjoy these parades, however, don't realize the risks that the regular and volunteer firefighters take as an ordinary part of their work.

As the monument points out, there are special qualities demanded of those who would run into a burning building whose occupants have run out in terror: it takes discipline, honor and abnegation to live up to the standard symbolized by the martyrs of El Polvorin.

Also in this section:
Different traditions when it comes to cemeteries
Discipline, Honor, Abnegation