05:43 PM
Houses completely demolished and others partially, cars with their windows broken and covered in debris, as if it were the war between Russia and Ukraine, was what was seen this Monday morning in a block of the Alto de la Capilla neighborhood , in the central area of Rionegro, all due to the explosion of a powder factory which left one person dead and 22 injured.
At 10:15 am on Monday, the emergency occurred in this central sector that claimed the lives of Juan Manuel Vallejo, 34 years oldwho apparently would be the manager of the powder shop that caused the emergency.
Maicol Espinosa, a resident of Rionegro who was in one of the areas surrounding this emergency, said: “We were in the cafeteria in front of the bomb. It was all quiet, but in the blink of an eye there was an explosion that knocked us all down. “People thought it was a transformer, but we saw that there was a column of smoke, so we started running because we saw the destroyed facades.”
The effects also left 22 people injured, of which 12 received medical evaluation and were discharged moments later by relief agencies. The other 10 were transferred to the two locations of the San Juan de Dios Hospital, in Rionegro, and the Somer Clinic. One of these people would be in critical condition.
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The governor of Antioquia, Aníbal Gaviria, stated that “seven of them have less serious injuries, while three of them are somewhat more serious, but are still stable.”
The mayor of Rionegro, Rodrigo Hernández, explained that they were at the forefront of the emergency 15 traffic agents, 22 uniformed Army personnel, 50 members of the Police, 20 firefighters, 14 members of the Civil Defense and the Risk Management team. These were reinforced with fire personnel from Marinilla and Carmen de Viboral.
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“The possible motives for this emergency They have to do with the handling of gunpowder that occurred inside a home, affecting neighboring properties and a parking lot,” the mayor said.
For this explosion, five homes will have to be demolishedbecause this emergency caused its structure to weaken, making it impossible for it to be reinforced.
In order to control the situation and avoid a new explosion, streets were closed for much of the day. up to two blocks arounduntil the authorities managed to control the risk.
Some residents of the sector assured that they reported the presence of this powder dump. However, the commander of the Antioquia Police, Colonel Carlos Andrés Martínez, assured that “until now No complaints had been received that this house was an illegal gunpowder site.. There is no background, and when carrying out neighborhood work, many neighbors were not aware either.”
