No Pasa Nada. Until It Does
Picaresca. An old Spanish word to describe a type of novel that was developed in Spain. Picaresque. It is a word all Spaniards are familiar with. Most have indulged in it in some form. Perhaps they avoided paying taxes on something. Others might have reformed their house on the sly, without city permits. Still others might have risked their necks by undoing safety buttons on some machinery. Always behind the act is the idea of "no pasa nada." Nothing's going to happen. Everything is under control. Until it isn't.
Yesterday, everything went out of control in a village outside Tui. At around four thirty, an explosion ripped apart a village. Over thirty kilometers away, in Vigo, and even in Cangas, across the estuary from Vigo, people heard the boom. My husband, working these days in Mos, near Porriño and closer to the site, heard it very clearly and thought it was close by. The distance, however, is bigger. Two people have died, around thirty were injured, with some in serious condition. Families have lost their houses, their jobs; a mechanic's garage was also razed. The scenes were appalling. What caused the explosion? The storage of fireworks in an unsecured, unprotected, and unconditioned outhouse. Most likely, with the heat of these past couple of days in the area, the fireworks reacted and the powder overheated.
They belonged to a man who had had a fireworks business in a nearby village. The business had been founded in the 1930's and had already suffered two explosions, in the 80's and in 2005. They had received the first municipal license they had ever held in 2013, only to have it taken away in 2015 because the business didn't meet all the safety standards. So, the owner continued doing business unofficially. The company still has a website. It hasn't been updated since 2015, but it has a phone number and an email address. I assume they were both in working order before yesterday. Today, the owner has been arrested for imprudent homicide and damages. The neighbors had no idea the owner, their neighbor, was storing fireworks willy-nilly in the midst of their homes.
It is one of those cases of picaresca. A long time ago, in a book about Spain, I read an admonition from the author that, at an intersection, if the light turns green, the foreign driver should wait just a couple of heartbeats, because, inevitably, another driver on the cross road will jump the red light by seconds, rather than wait. It was considered absolutely normal to run a red light just after it turned red. Why? Because the other cars would have just started rolling, and there would be no danger of being hit. Safety? For the birds.
It has occurred in many instances in Spain. Whether intentionally, or by accident, safety measures are not always seen as necessary, but more as a bother, sometimes an expensive bother. In the Alvia accident in Santiago, back in 2013, one of the major reasons for the train crash was the absence of a system that would automatically slow the train if it were going too fast. The higher-ups never installed it, probably because it would slow inauguration and because it would make the construction more expensive. Upon the accident, the only person blamed was the driver, who was on his phone at the time.
That was the closest in time. Another, more horrific accident involved a tanker truck, a camping site, and a highly inflammable chemical. In 1978, at Los Alfaques camp site near Tarragona, a tanker truck suddenly exploded while driving by. Around 215 people died, including entire families. The tanker was badly soldered and overfilled. The heat from the sun expanded the liquid, and that was that. Again, there was a disregard for danger, because things like that had been done before, and "no pasa nada."
I suppose it's a question of becoming relaxed. One has done something dangerous for so long, that one becomes inured to it. One acts gingerly at first, and then, with time, and seeing that occasional roughness doesn't hurt, one has assumed it no longer will. Until it does. Unfortunately, too many people assume nothing will happen. While something may not happen every time safety procedures are ignored, it just takes one time.
Yesterday, everything went out of control in a village outside Tui. At around four thirty, an explosion ripped apart a village. Over thirty kilometers away, in Vigo, and even in Cangas, across the estuary from Vigo, people heard the boom. My husband, working these days in Mos, near Porriño and closer to the site, heard it very clearly and thought it was close by. The distance, however, is bigger. Two people have died, around thirty were injured, with some in serious condition. Families have lost their houses, their jobs; a mechanic's garage was also razed. The scenes were appalling. What caused the explosion? The storage of fireworks in an unsecured, unprotected, and unconditioned outhouse. Most likely, with the heat of these past couple of days in the area, the fireworks reacted and the powder overheated.
They belonged to a man who had had a fireworks business in a nearby village. The business had been founded in the 1930's and had already suffered two explosions, in the 80's and in 2005. They had received the first municipal license they had ever held in 2013, only to have it taken away in 2015 because the business didn't meet all the safety standards. So, the owner continued doing business unofficially. The company still has a website. It hasn't been updated since 2015, but it has a phone number and an email address. I assume they were both in working order before yesterday. Today, the owner has been arrested for imprudent homicide and damages. The neighbors had no idea the owner, their neighbor, was storing fireworks willy-nilly in the midst of their homes.
It is one of those cases of picaresca. A long time ago, in a book about Spain, I read an admonition from the author that, at an intersection, if the light turns green, the foreign driver should wait just a couple of heartbeats, because, inevitably, another driver on the cross road will jump the red light by seconds, rather than wait. It was considered absolutely normal to run a red light just after it turned red. Why? Because the other cars would have just started rolling, and there would be no danger of being hit. Safety? For the birds.
It has occurred in many instances in Spain. Whether intentionally, or by accident, safety measures are not always seen as necessary, but more as a bother, sometimes an expensive bother. In the Alvia accident in Santiago, back in 2013, one of the major reasons for the train crash was the absence of a system that would automatically slow the train if it were going too fast. The higher-ups never installed it, probably because it would slow inauguration and because it would make the construction more expensive. Upon the accident, the only person blamed was the driver, who was on his phone at the time.
That was the closest in time. Another, more horrific accident involved a tanker truck, a camping site, and a highly inflammable chemical. In 1978, at Los Alfaques camp site near Tarragona, a tanker truck suddenly exploded while driving by. Around 215 people died, including entire families. The tanker was badly soldered and overfilled. The heat from the sun expanded the liquid, and that was that. Again, there was a disregard for danger, because things like that had been done before, and "no pasa nada."
I suppose it's a question of becoming relaxed. One has done something dangerous for so long, that one becomes inured to it. One acts gingerly at first, and then, with time, and seeing that occasional roughness doesn't hurt, one has assumed it no longer will. Until it does. Unfortunately, too many people assume nothing will happen. While something may not happen every time safety procedures are ignored, it just takes one time.
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