Breathe
By Lourdes Encinas
At 2:45 p.m. on June 5, 2009, the clock of the ABC Day Care Center stopped, at that moment it was hit by a fire that originated minutes before in the adjacent warehouse that was used by the Secretary of Finance of the Government of Sonora.
At that time, the day care center staff began to notice smoke invading their facilities, but the fire alarm was not activated because the detectors were under a false ceiling and a plastic tarp covering the play area, where the smoke was trapped.
It was the time when the children took their naps.
When the employees tried to wake them up to get them out of there, the tarpaulin and the false ceiling fell, opening the way to a sea of black and toxic smoke, which in seconds invaded the place and made it impossible to see or breathe.
There were three emergency doors marked, but only the one in the kitchen could be opened because the others were padlocked and, being made of iron, were damaged by the heat.
Some employees managed to get out through the main entrance carrying children in their arms or pushing cribs, the rest were trapped inside.
Following security protocol, police officers tried to prevent civilians from entering the daycare center, but were unable to contain the desperate parents searching for their children or the volunteers who acted when the emergency services could not cope.
Rescuers and civilians were trying to open the walls with hammers and picks, but they could not do it fast enough.
It was then that Frank, a young neighbor, used his pickup truck to open three large holes in the front of the nursery, which allowed smoke to escape and rescuers to enter. It was a decisive act that saved lives.
The most painful search
When they began to remove the children, other difficulties began, because not even with the help of firefighters and police, the rescuers were able to provide first aid to all of them. Ambulances were not enough; patrol cars and private vehicles had to be used to take them to the hospitals.
The children, who had no visible injuries, were sheltered in a private home, Mrs. Ofelia's green house, while they were being located by their families or by the authorities.
The rest of the afternoon we watched mothers and fathers go from hospital to hospital looking for their babies. They were all delaying to get to the last, the most painful, the final place: the morgue.
49 children died in the fire and 106 were injured to varying degrees, none of them over the age of four.
That happened on the afternoon of June 5, 2009 in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora. An afternoon that mourned all of Mexico, but the story began to be written years before.
The story began to be written when the IMSS allowed the operation of a system of subrogation of daycare centers to private companies with a very lax regulatory framework, especially in terms of civil protection, and which expanded the coverage of the service at the cost of reducing its quality.
History has its origin in corruption, influence peddling and impunity, under the protection of political power, at all levels, among all parties. These are the great evils that persist in this country and continue to cause misfortunes.
But in this story there is also recognition for activists and families of the victims who have worked to create regulatory instruments to improve the safety of daycare centers. Translating pain into action is a way to honor their children.
For the memory of the 25 girls and 24 boys who died, for those who survive with injuries, let us not allow oblivion to prevail because forgetting runs the risk of repeating.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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