It was 5:30 a.m. on Sunday when several residents of Campoamor Street, in the Arrecife neighborhood of Argana Alta, heard an "explosion." Startled, they went out into the street and realized there was smoke in one of the houses, inside of which a woman and her three-year-old son were sleeping.
"It could have been much worse," says one of the tenants in this area of Arrecife. After the fire, a man was arrested, accused of spraying gasoline on the front door of this house, where his ex-partner and her son reside.
Two health workers who live on the same street, a couple of houses away from the affected one, attended to the young boy, who had inhaled a lot of smoke. "He was drowsy and not talking. His nostrils and mouth were black with smoke," they explain. The minor was treated with oxygen by the firefighters and transferred to Doctor José Molina Orosa Hospital, where he remains under observation. He is expected to be discharged between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Apparently, the mother, upon hearing the explosion, realized that the fire was affecting the electrical panel, which is inside the two-story house, but right next to the exit door. Unable to escape the fire through this door, she grabbed her young son and decided to jump over the wall from the second floor onto the terrace of the neighbor next door.
Precisely, the two health workers who attended to the boy did so at the home of this neighbor, who helped the affected family escape the fire. Therefore, they believe that the incident did not escalate further because all the houses "are attached".
The woman and her son had been living in this house for about a year, where apparently another son of about 12 years old also resided, although at the time of the events he was at a relative's house. After the fire, neighbors found a gasoline can in the area, which may have been the one supposedly used by the ex-partner of the affected woman to spray the door.
"If more time had passed without them noticing the fire, something much worse could have happened," the neighbors insist, shocked by this event.
In the affected house, the door can be seen blackened by the fire. No one has slept there since the early hours of Saturday to Sunday. Several neighbors had to testify this Monday before the National Police, who are in charge of the investigation.
