The rest night It ended up becoming hours of anguish, smoke and uncertainty for the community members of the Magdalena sectorin the municipality of HainaSan Cristóbal province, after the fire that affects the Katae Group company, dedicated to the manufacturing of packaging and plastic products since early this Thursday.
Since the 12:00 midnightresidents say they began to realize the situation. He smoke It began to spread rapidly, forcing them to get out of their beds, leave their homes and, in many cases, put on masks to breathe.
“Since we realized we haven’t slept a wink because it is something that unfortunately one is afraid of after they say that there is a tank there of that magnitude,” said Cindy Maldonado.
The fear increased when, as he said, an employee told him about the existence of a tank of “extremely dangerous” gas at the site of the fire. Although the flames did not reach that area, the possibility of the situation could escalate kept her in alert to the woman. Maldonado resides with his 9-year-old niece and his 78-year-old mother, who is sick.
“Right now there was going to be nothing here. Everything was going to burn down completely. You have to thank God that it didn’t reach the tankbut the firefighters They have been there constantly working in that, thank God,” said Maldonado.
While the firefighters They worked from the early hours of the morning to control the situation, the smoke It continued to enter homes.
“We have affected quite the smoke, is totally unbearable. When the breeze hits it, look how it all fills up. “It’s something incredible,” Cindy said, pointing out how the air carries the smoke towards the houses.
For Cindy, the start of the fire was something unexpected. In addition, he maintained that he should stand up to the situation and receive three family members who work in the company in his home and that They were evacuated.
“That was something amazingthat was out of nowhere. we were sleeping We all got up and left. That’s it super closeas you can see, is super close of us around here,” he said.
With crutches and without being able to rest
In the private street of the Maria Magdalena neighborhooda few meters from the place affectedhe was sitting in front of his humble home Francisco Almonte Tejeda 60 years old. With his crutches at his side and visibly exhausted, he said that he has not been able to rest since the beginning of the fire.
“I’m here from 12:00 at night going through work through this situation of that fire. Nobody has been able to sleep here, worried that that fire can move into our homes and trap us there. We have had a hard time, look how I am here, disabled, I can’t walk or anything,” he said.
Like Cindy, he assured that the smoke has been one of the biggest problems during the emergency.
Fire controlled
After 1:00 in the afternoon, the fire that affected the Katae company facilities since early Thursday morning had been 95% suffocated, and the smoke was under control.
The mayor general of Haina Fire DepartmentAlfonso Vázquez, explained that the teams entered the final phase of the work and that the situation does not represent a danger to nearby communities. As a result, no victims were reported.
