Noa de la Torre Valencia

Valencia

Updated Saturday, February 24, 2024-15:30

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Five minutes of silence that were only broken by the applause of hundreds of people who gathered this Saturday in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Valencia, in memory of the ten fatalities of the fire that devastated a block of flats in Campanar.

The minute of silence, however, has also become an improvised tribute to one of the "heroes" of this tragedy.

This is Julián, the janitor of the burned buildings whose work on the day of the tragedy has been pointed out by everyone as "key" to saving as many people as possible while the flames devoured the residential towers in a matter of minutes.

The applause also went to him.

"I helped everything I could, until the smoke left me," he said this Saturday, after attending the minute of silence with other neighbors and relatives of the victims.

Julián, who worked in these blocks on Maestro Rodrigo Avenue in Valencia since 2009, when they were inaugurated, knocked door to door, until he could, to alert the residents of the complex, which has a total of 138 homes.

Julián has confirmed that the fire started at door 86 on the 8th floor, in a building where he knew all the neighbors.

The fire has claimed the lives of ten people, according to the latest official figures, and hundreds of families have been left homeless.

Julián has highlighted that "many" affected people have personally thanked him for his help and has stressed that teamwork is "very important", he insisted, after receiving numerous expressions of support and affection from the political leaders who participated in the rally. silent.

The janitor does not know how many floors he went up, but he does know that he took an elderly woman, who lived on a lower floor, out of the fire and when he opened the door he noticed "like a flare" and helped another neighbor in a chair. of wheels, which could be rescued.

"It's very hard, it's very hard to see all that, the truth is, it's very hard," he detailed.

"I was going up the stairs, I was going up and warning, because there is a staircase that is parallel."

And so he believes that he was able to reach the 12th floor. There came a time, however, when the smoke made it impossible to continue further.

That's when the firefighters asked him to stay in the yard.

"Things got worse, the burning plates fell," explained the janitor, who admitted that he was "scared."

Julián, in reality, has now lost his job.

At the moment they have told him that he is "on vacation."

But, evidently, this is not what concerns him now.