• Madrid.At least three dead in a strong explosion in Madrid that has destroyed a building on Toledo Street

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  • Album.See the images of the strong explosion in Madrid

"They have had impressive luck ...".

More than four hours have passed since a very powerful gas explosion blew up the

La Paloma

parish building

, in the central

Toledo street

of

Madrid

, right next to the nursing home where his mother lives, and Enrique still can't believe it.

Gumersilda

is

97 years old

, "98 in April", and is a native of Bilbao, "from the Barakaldo area".

He gets out of the ambulance in a wheelchair and pokes his nose over a mo

tons of blankets.

"How am I? I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine," he is crying out, "but what happened before, right?"

"She does not understand what has happened and of course we are not going to explain it to her," says her son at the door of the center where she has been rehoused. Her hair is very white and combed and her elegance is intact, even with the year that carries.

Passed the

coronavirus

a month ago, asymptomatic.

"She is Basque, she does not die even if the building falls on her," jokes her grandson

Ivan

, with his face already recomposed after the shock.

"Get inside!"

Enrique and Iván have been looking for Gumersilda all afternoon.

Like them, the relatives of

56 evacuated elders

of the

La Paloma residence

.

All unharmed.

Like them, the relatives of

Luis

, who at 95 has been a direct witness of the disaster.

He was in his room, which faces Toledo Street, when he heard the explosion.

He went to the window to see what was happening and someone shouted at him from the street: "Get inside!" It was the first stupor minutes after the detonation, when everything seemed shattered, when the dust and smoke clouded the vision and everyone expected the worst.

TO

Emilia

, Luis's sister, all the windows of the house shook and she took to the street.

Suddenly everything was chaos.

Ambulances, firefighters, police, precincts and more precincts, increasingly far from their objective: "I live next door and I want to take my brother home." The information came dropper to the relatives who crowded at the end of the street, who saw stretchers coming out, who saw tents set up and who repeated old names,

Francisca

,

Maria Luisa

,

Antonio

,

Mercedes

, who would like to listen.On the other side, Luis's, the main concern was that they had taken him out of the room without his mobile and he could not call his daughter

Mercedes

.

They have finally met again in another residence of the same group, a 10-minute walk away.

In the rain and cold and dodging the snow, yes.

"It's the beginning of the year," she says now, already answered.

"We have been waiting, attentive to each ambulance that came to see if it was him. And they gave us hot coffee and linden, especially a lot of linden," he says.

"When the firefighters tell us, we will return"

He

Social Samur

He has evacuated all the elderly, 56 in all, from the building in half an hour.

First, the majority have gone to a hotel located across the street, a few have been distributed to two nearby bars.

Later, they have been transferred to two residential centers of the same chain, within a radius of one kilometer.

They do not know when they will be able to sleep in their rooms again, to retrieve their belongings.

Luis's cell phone, for example. "It seems that he has not touched the structure of the building, and when the firefighters tell us that it is safe, we will return, I hope in about three days," he says.

Antonio Berlanga

, director of

Los Nogales group

, with nine residences in Madrid.

Everything around him is a coming and going of assistants, doctors and nurses with lists: "What's his name?"

Antonio

goes to the other residence "." What's his name? ", they look for," hello

Mercedes

, I'm the psychologist, are you coming with me? "The explosion caught the La Paloma staff at the shift change. There were more than 40 people when the parish blew up, wall to wall. Those who left have returned. Those who entered They have picked up the pace. Everyone is trying to keep calm in the umpteenth crisis of a year to forget that seemed to be overcome with the vaccine. All the elderly were already waiting for the second dose. They saw the light at the end of a tunnel marked by the pandemic and have reborn, once again, unexpectedly. "With the vaccine there will be no problem", clarifies Berlanga, "everyone will receive the second dose when they reach 21 days." Javi has heard the "

plum

explosive ", from the central

Social Samur

, just a few streets away.

"We didn't really know what had happened."

a few streets away.

And that's where the ambulance trips began.

All very fast, three grandparents on each trip, all separated by screens.

"We have a little of everything, some very affected, others who have a certain dementia and have not found out much, and others who do not even collaborate because they no longer have mobility or memory." He, yes, is very clear about his role.

"Life is a joy and every day I live is a hope. He could have died today, but he is still alive," he tells them.

And he goes out to make the umpteenth trip.

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