Running towards the explosion

Yesterday afternoon I was looking at a motobike with @tolimax, and the guy was asking much more money than we were expecting, when we heard 3 large explosions. Detonations? Was this some mine project? No it was the Polvereria.

This fireworks making family might seem strange to those of you that live in countries with strict laws, and even here the legality of fabricating explosives in your home is questionable. I am not an expert on the law, but let's just say we are on the margin.

These folks are our neighbors and I told @tolimax to drive us up there because I am a first responder and was thinking maybe they might need help. They did.

Here is what is running on the news now.

When we arrived, I used my training to quickly analyze the situation. There were already a lot of people, and several were being carried out on backboards. Many people were also crying and yelling, standing aside and reacting to the events. I ran up the hill where the building had exploded, while @tolimax took the motorbike and parked it far back, to avoid more congestion in the road that was already developing.

Fireworks were still exploding.

When I arrived, there were two people gravely injured still, and, after analyzing the situation in this part, with its active fire and explosions, I went to the young man nearest to the fire. Another first responder told me we needed a backboard. I could see lots of blood, primarily on his left side, but the young man looked right at me and asked me for help. I ran back down the hill determined to find a backboard.

Because of the fact that so many emergency vehicles were beginning to arrive, the road was completely congested. Ambulances trying to turn around, and many people were pushing back spectators and their motorbikes. I was happy I had already sent @tolimax far away.

I addressed several emergency responders, there were still two injured up the hill, we needed two more camillas. Depsite trying to convey this message for what seemed like an hour but was probably only a couple of minutes, it turns out there were no more Camillas at this time. What were we going to do?

Several other people ran back up the hill with me. The determination was to improvise a backboard if we could. We looked around again, tin roofing sheets look flat but are very dangerous to be handling, as they can cut hands.

A porton to the upper area was identified, and several men started trying to pull it off its hinges.

While the hinges were strong, and wouldn't budge, I noticed that the hinges were into a piece of wood tied to a post, and I began to untie the upper part. One that was untied, we were easily able to get the porton door, with hinges and a bit of frame, over to the young man.

With lots of help, and now several professional first responders on the scene, we got him loaded on the door, and began carrying him down the hill. The porton was much wider than a backboard, and this was difficult going down the narrow path, but we managed to keep him level and get him down to road level, where they moved him over to a stretcher and into the ambulance.

I was left looking at the porton covered in this young man's blood.

After this, I again analyzed the situation, and quickly realized there was no more help I could give. I moved the porton out of the path, found my motorbike helmet, and walked a block and a half to find @tolimax. Let's get out of here. There were still people arriving to see what had happened, including more emergency vehicles.

Coming back into town, I was a bit shaken. While I was a first responder long ago as a lifeguard, and have made several 'saves', this was the most intense experience I had ever had as a responder.

Even later, in the night, I remembered that I had complained bitterly about these neighbors detonating test rockets early in the morning and frequently in the day, bothering our dogs, and all the wonderful birds we love to observe. I even went so far as to write 'angry poetry' for @chrisrobert's Revenge of the Words contest, you can see the full poem there.

At the time I considered this to be one of the best poems I have ever written, visceral and, if a bit exaggerated, full of raw emotion. Here is a sample:

That I know of they never jumped our fence, though completely unrelated people have, and perhaps at that time I suspected them of doing it. From this vantage, many years later, after not their house but their workshop did explode, I feel like I shouldn't write anymore angry poetry. I shouldn't have written that one. For those words I won 3 steem.

🤢 🤮

There is a boy of 17 years old that is dead, and 15 others are in intensive care across the country now as of this morning. On scene I counted 7 that I considered gravely injured, but even the ones that I noted as just 'soot covered and shaking' could have devastating internal injuries from such percussion. One man was recovered across the road from the river. Did he fly through the air?

I'm sure more information will be released within a few days. I don't think there will be fireworks for Christmas this year.

We are blessed to be given the time we have here on this planet, whatever we get, short or long. For me, there is also a lesson here about guarding my tongue. Its easy and maybe even profitable to say mean things. Its harder to be a blessing for each and every person that we come across, but what a richer world we would live in if we could do just that.