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Deadly Colon Free Zone fire aggravated by systematic neglect, Elektra Noreste's failure to shut off the electricity

Two bomberos die, five others seriously hurt in Free Zone blaze
by Eric Jackson

How did it start at three o'clock on that afternoon of Tuesday, October 30? By one account published in La Estrella, it began with sparks from a collision between two container trucks in front of the Colon Free Zone warehouse of Hisa Internacional SA. That import - export company moves merchandise from China to buyers in Latin American and Caribbean counties, including textiles and, most tragically in this instance, cigarette lighters. The fire inspectors' report has yet to identify a cause, but by all accounts once the fire got going it set off a large supply of lighters and quickly spread to adjoining businesses.

Then the combined effects of distinct cases of neglect set in, and made the situation far worse.

Colon's bomberos (firefighters) have a special alarm system, given that the force is composed of a small group of full-timers and a much larger force of volunteers. An alarm whistle that can be heard throughout the area sounds, sounding a code that will tell the volunteers where to go. This time, however, the alarm wasn't working. Like so much of the equipment that bomberos all over Panama depend upon, the alarm was old and its compressor, which really needs to be replaced, was in the shop for repairs. Thus it was the regulars, including the executive officers, who went in without the usual support to fight the quickly spreading blaze.

But with what? On this street in France Field, the Free Zone expanded without good planning and without construction of important infrastructures. Bad planning as in narrow streets without good provision for the ingress and egress of trucks, which may have led to a collision that started the fire in the first place, but with far less doubt created a street lined with container trucks that was difficult for the bomberos to navigate. Even worse, it was a street on which there were no fire hydrants.

The lack of nearby hydrants is a problem that's often overcome by the extension of a long hose from a pumper truck to the nearest fireplug and in serious cases by a series of pumper trucks. But as is very often the case with fires in Colon, the IDAAN public water utility didn't have enough water pressure in the nearest available hydrants to give the bomberos the pressure they needed to fight a rapidly expanding blaze. Seven other warehouses went up in flames and the bomberos had to string their access hose to Manzanillo Bay to get seawater to pour on the fire. By 9:00 p.m. the fire was completely out of control, even though by then the volunteers had arrived despite the dysfunctional alarm system.

But by the time that many of the volunteers deployed, Colon's Cuerpo de Bomberos was already in mourning. The firefighters had asked the Elektra Noreste electric utility to cut power to the area and was assured that this had been done when Major Dimas Sanabria, the third in command among the Atlantic side city's firefighters, led the crew of his pumper truck up a street of burning warehouses. A live power line hit the truck and the resulting shock killed Sanabria and injured six other bomberos. The following day one of the injured, Manuel Ábrego, died of his injuries in Panama City's Santo Tomas Hospital.

Doctors at Colon's Amador Guerrero Hospital described the injuries suffered by Sanabria, Ábrego and their colleagues as those one gets from an electrical shock. There were highly localized burns, in some cases with fingers exploded in the fashion of a hot dog overdone in a microwave oven. There were heart arrhythmias and other telltale neurological symptoms.

A spokesman for the Colon fire department issued a statement announcing Sanabria's death and the other injuries and attributing it to electrocution caused by the power utility's failure to turn off the power as instructed.

But Elektra Noreste issued an immediate blanket denial. Sanabria had not been electrocuted, and couldn't have been, the company's director of corporate communications claimed, because the power had been shut off as requested. The company further claimed that Sanabria's death was due to smoke inhalation and trauma caused by being hit by part of a collapsing wall.

With that bit of disinformation in the air and a number of uninjured bomberos who had been at the scene of the accident and saw what happened, the Cuerpo de Bomberos put a gag order on its members on the advice of its lawyers. Reports were forwarded to the prosecutors at the Public Ministry for possible charges of negligent homicide and the bomberos' attorneys began to collect their evidence for a probable huge civil lawsuit against Elektra Noreste. If the company, whose general manager in Panama is former ENRON executive René Van Hoorde, intends to pursue a legal strategy of vilifying eyewitnesses, it will have to do so with less than complete information on who those witnesses are and what stories they have to tell.

In Panama the evasion of civil responsibility for corporate misdeeds is legendary, but this case involves not only the deaths of two men but also injuries to several others that will prevent them from pursuing their customary occupations or require that they undergo substantial rehabilitation --- things like learning how to use hooks instead of hands --- before going back to work. Moreover, in a country where public mistrust of institutions is high, the Cuerpo de Bomberos is the exceptional public entity that's generally beloved while, for other reasons, the private electric companies are generally despised.

In our legal system a civil suit over a matter like this would be heard by judges rather than a jury, but a court decision in favor of an electric company that left these bomberos and their families without redress would nevertheless become a public scandal --- unless other circumstances justifying such a thing came to light.

With the firefighters maintaining their silence --- and in any case, busying themselves with putting out the fire, which was still burning when this story was written, five days after the blaze broke out --- it was left to public statements and leaks to the press by doctors and lawyers to refute Elektra Noreste's claims. For examples, as in medical examiners' reports that Sanabria and Ábrego had been electrocuted, and treating physicians' statements about the nature of the injuries suffered by their surviving patients.

Over the next few days, by way of press releases, leaks in the media and proxy attacks in email discussion groups, the electric company and its supporters changed their story. The company admitted that Sanabria had been electrocuted, but sought to shift the blame to the bomberos for not being specific enough about where they wanted the power cut off. Another version appearing in the press blamed a business near where the fire broke out, which purportedly prevailed upon somebody in charge to keep the power on while it finished loading a container truck. On the Internet those who criticized Elektra Noreste were branded as liars and ghouls.

And what about the government? In the official organizational chart and in public appropriations, the Cuerpo de Bomberos comes under the Ministry of Government and Justice, which is headed by Daniel Delgado Diamante. The minister has friends and former Panama Defense Forces comrades in arms among Colon's firefighters and inherited long-standing complaints about underfunding of Panama's bomberos when he took his present post earlier this year. Four days after the fire Delgado announced a $9 million special appropriation for the purchase of firefighting equipment --- a small sum, given the great needs of fire companies across the country, but still an improvement over a long history of neglect. Without mentioning the controversy with Elektra Noreste, Delgado also told reporters covering the November 1 funeral services for Sanabria that his ministry would be investigating the cause of the fire and all of the circumstances surrounding the deaths and injuries and difficulties putting out the blaze so that measures can be taken to prevent a repetition.

The funeral, presided over by Colon's Catholic Bishop Audilio Aguilar, was attended by President Martín Torrijos, Delgado and a number of other hign-ranking government officials. An honor guard of firefighters from companies around Panama escorted the fire truck that bore Sanabria's flag-draped coffin through the streets of Colon, which were lined with crowds of mourners.

In Colon's patriotic parades the bomberos took a lower than usual profile. On Independence Day the firefighters were still trying to put out the smoldering vestiges of the Free Zone fire and many of the men and women who would have marched were worn out from days put in fighting the blaze. Only a small section of drummers, rather than the usual full complement of percussion and brass, represented the Cuerpo de Bomberos.

Also in this section:

Two bomberos electrocuted, five others injured, in Colon Free Zone blaze
Police open fire with shotguns, arrest 97 in Kuna protest

Martín Torrijos on the campaign trail

Miguel Antonio Bernal on the campaign trail

Partido Alternativa Popular on the campaign trail

Méndez fights charges that he tried to set up a shooting incident
Panama News Briefs