A fire in San Pedro.

---Translated from the Americatv.com news site:

Hell in the north. A fire charred about 600 homes in the slums Jose Sanchez Mile in the lower area of ​​the Cerro San Pedro, in Chimbote. Also hit by the flames were the areas of Los Jardines and Nuevo Horizonte.

The fire burned houses that were built of sticks and estera mats in a 12 blocks radius, near the city.

The incident occurred midway through 11 a.m. and after more than three hours was only able to be controlled by firefighters and the villagers themselves.

Precisely, the affected population showed their disgust with the regional president of Ancash, Cesar Alvarez Aguilar, and the provincial mayor of Santa, Luis Arroyo, for not implementing the Fire Company with better resources, despite a budget that is managed in the region.

The residents also demanded that the municipality give them land titles without them they can not build and improve the state of their homes.

At press time, it is yet to be determined exactly how many people suffocated by the smoke, but no casualties were reported.
One of the wounded was a watchman, who suffered minor burns. Those affected were registered with representatives of Civil Defense to receive food, tents and other supplies.

THE REASON

It is not known exactly what caused accident. Initial inquiries suggest that the fire occurred because a cook with wood stove in the backyard. He could not control the fire and it spread rapidly to other lots. After that, several gas tanks exploded, spreading flames further.

However, according to RPP Noticias, firefighters said that this incident was caused by a short circuit for illegal connections that are in the area.

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This past Saturday Emily, Katie and I visited the area to help the Diocese of Chimbote hand out donations of clothes and water. In all there were about twenty of us to help pass out the bags of supplies to a pre-arranged group of those affected by the fire.

I was surprised to see that there wasn’t much evidence of a fire. Just a giant empty field that looked littered with trash. At the top of a sandy, gently sloping hill was what appeared to be a tent city. Blue canvas and vinyl disaster relief tents flapped in the hot wind.

I walked partway up the hill and was able to see another field filled with piles of black ash and debris close by. I realized that the city had already bulldozed much of the area and gathered the aftermath in a nearby empty lot. Further up the hill we saw real signs of the damage. After we passed out everything we’d brought, the coordinator asked us to split into groups of two and find out what the people there need most and also to see if anyone needed help rebuilding. 

 

My friend Giancarlo and I started at the bottom of the hill to see what we could do. As we walked through an area with minimal damage, Giancarlo turned to me and said, “I think we should only stop at houses without a man around. We should look for a single mother or grandma or something who’ll really need our help.” I agreed and we stopped at one house to talk to a woman, but she said she didn’t need any help rebuilding, although, they didn’t have anything to eat. Her and her family would be depending on relief services for food that day.

We found out that they were all receiving adequate water though. A giant truck had been coming to fill large donated barrels with potable water for the community, a good sign. 

              It wasn’t long before we came across Hermana Katty, one of the Incarnate Word sisters, waving us over to an older woman dragging a roll of estera towards her tent. Hermana Katty explained that the woman needed help creating a barrier against the wind and sun in front of her tent. It was getting too hot during the day to remain in the tent, but it was also too hot and windy to stay outside. We later found out that her husband was with her daughter and her baby, the old woman’s grandson, at the hospital. She wanted to have an enclosed area built by the time they returned. After about thirty minutes of dusty, sweaty work, the four of us managed to build an enclosure for the woman.

            After talking to another woman, we learned that many of the residents were upset because of the large amount of looting. Apparently as people were rushing to get their belongings out of their houses before they burned to the ground, some busied themselves with taking all the unprotected stuff.

            “It’s sad. It’s sad that we lost our house and it’s sad that there are people taking advantage of the situation like this. By robbing their neighbors.” she said as we stood with her in a line waiting for a donation bag.

            As we were leaving the area, on our way to an area with taxis, we noticed a large crowd of people, some yelling, some with camcorders recording. In the center of the crowd was Cesar Alvarez, our regional governor. Before then I’d only seen his smiling face all over signs throughout the city. Standing in the middle of that crowd though, he was definitely not happy. People demanded to know why more wasn’t being done.

             The fire only highlighted a deeper problem. Why were there so many people without adequate housing? The slum in San Pedro is one of many other slums in and around Chimbote. Yes the fire was a horrible disaster, but we need to look at the bigger picture. I’m sure it’s a complicated issue, but the bottom line is that the victims represent a portion of this community who are suffering because of a lack of income and affordable housing. 

            They are forced to make do with what they have, and that means buying cheap, extremely flammable bamboo mats to build their homes. I hope that Cesar Alvarez is proactive and does something to help the people of San Pedro, both short and long-term, and doesn’t take the “these homes shouldn’t have been here in the first place” approach, which would be a bad ending to an already sad story.

            We’re planning on going back out this Saturday to help more, however we can.