"The documentation that has been described as 'high value' is not of major relevance." This was expressed this Tuesday by the Government Delegate in Lanzarote, Marcial Martín, although the material found is under the custody of the Police Information unit "to be studied." Marcial Martín explained that this Monday in the mid-afternoon, the State security services concluded that the cause of the explosion on the Argana farm, in Arrecife, was the leak of butane gas from a cylinder. As a result of the deflagration, the house collapsed, crushing its occupant, Marcelino Santana Santana, 64 years old and an employee of the Arrecife City Council.
The Government Delegate has denied that remains of explosives were found inside the house, although he has acknowledged that "a good deployment of security forces was made." A team of Technical Specialists in Explosive Device Deactivation (Tedax) arriving from Las Palmas, "because they have more resources," Martín points out, joined the Tedax of the Civil Guard in Lanzarote and the Scientific Police.
In the early afternoon of this Monday, the concern of the emergency services focused on the possibility that there was another person trapped in the rubble, "a close friend of the victim," says the Government Delegate, whose motorcycle was parked near the house destroyed by the explosion. "Until Monday night this man had not appeared," so his life was feared, a fear that disappeared when the clearing work was finished and they confirmed that only the deceased Marcelino Santana was in the house.
At the moment his body was removed, Marcelino had slight burns on his back, although the cause of his death was the weight of the rubble of his home. The investigation remains open in order to find out if it was only a carelessness when leaving the gas key open or if other causes intervened in this event.