Fire in the tower The Nations: believe that it was intentional and strengthen the controls to enter – 08/02/2019

The fifth floor is closed. Elevators, out of service. Two policemen are posted at the entrance of the building. A security employee goes to the sidewalk when he realizes that this newspaper has started asking questions. There is also tension at the reception: according to neighbors, until last week, the income did not have a lot of formalities. Today, they ask everyone who comes in to take a photo and check their name in a list. Whoever is not part of this payroll does not pbad. Extreme prevention is not surprising: according to research sources, There is a good chance that the fire is intentional.

This Friday marks a week of the tragic afternoon during which the flames have invaded the fifth floor of the old Hotel Nations, a tower of 28 factories located in Corrientes 820. According to the sources of the investigation, the fire in the fifth floor vestibule did not occur, although the smoke itself has spread to higher levels. The five victims died in this factory. It is now time to determine if two of these people died in the elevator, where the fire broke out when the doors opened when they reached the door. 39th floor affected. These lifts were not yet activated, as was this fifth level.

Among the reasons for the flames, there is still less precision: the cause is initially clbadified as fire followed by deathreferred to in Articles 186 et seq. of the Penal Code. If the suspicion was found to be intentional, the cover would become arson and death and the conditions of the tower should be determined.

The concrete thing is that it's a building with a diversity of uses: offices, legal studies and housing, some occupied by their own owners and others rented temporarily by Argentineans as visitors from abroad, mainly from Venezuela, but also from other countries, such as Chile, Colombia and Nigeria. In this tower is also prepared, in one of the first levels, a Dance teaching studio, which will open soon.

To add to its history, this former hotel had rescued 23 badually exploited women five years ago. And barely a year ago, two men were arrested, accused of performing clandestine abortions with drugs, sometimes for veterinary use, or surgically in an operating room that they had installed in one of the rooms.

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As stated by the Government of Buenos Aires Control Agency, it is "an apartment building managed by a consortium that complies with all the regulations established by the legislation in force". And although this entity acknowledged that at the end of 2016, it had been closed for lack of authorization, she said that today she has a fixed installations system. against fires, lifts and boilers registered and controlled by their respective conservative companies ". Federico Tropea, Prosecutor's Office No. 15 of the Buenos Aires Public Prosecutor's Office, asked the consortium for information on the case.

Meanwhile, the fire reports are already in progress and the input of valuable information has been ordered: the images recorded by the entrance hall cameras and the data of the fire alarm center. and system of magnetic accreditation of revenues, to verify who were at the time of the event, indicated the sources of the investigation.

They also asked for a list of people transferred to hospitals and their medical recordsTestimonies were collected and autopsies of the five deadly victims were made, according to the same sources. These are all test measurements that will be ready in the next few days.

The building is involved in another judicial case: it is by usurping the departments of the first three floors, which belong to what was originally the hotel and which were then occupied. Anyway, it's hard to imagine this tower as a place to live or stay: its windows barely open, and the only way to protect it from the sun penetrating the large windows is to move from heavy curtains.

However, there are several properties for sale for people to live in or stay there. As one of the ads published on the real estate platforms says, "it is an ideal property to use or invest for renting by the day as a hotel or as temporary rental to foreigners". The monoambientes, of 24 square meters, are offered between 59,000 and 69,000 US dollars. Those from two environments, between 65,000 and 75,000 USD. The bills in these cases are $ 5,000 a month.

In this tower lived, for example, the owner of a store in a gallery of the same block. "I was from 2012 to 2016. Luckily I no longer live there, everything that could go wrong in this building was wrong," he acknowledged during a meeting. dialogue with this newspaper. And the list began: "I was stolen and, when I asked for pictures at the security cameras, I discovered that there was no room for This floor they did not have me sign a rental agreement, everything was black, not only in my apartment, but in a lot There was a huge expense debt. Buying an apartment there was and is buying a problem. "

There are also offices for rent with double the money and expenses rising to $ 11,000, although the building lacks equipment. In these cases, the amount requested for renting is $ 18,000 per month. In addition, there is "possibility to join another unit" to the proposed property, according to the notice of the real estate.

In the meantime, there remains an unresolved issue. "We would like to know what has really happened and why, to know if we are safe," said a neighbor from the neighboring building, who saw from her balcony how white smoke from the windows of the turn became darker and darker. As the plot of this story, which seems to go back much further than the fire itself.