The judge who was on dana in the Dana in Paiporta: « It was made by day and we could not leave the bodies on public roads » | News from the Valencian Community

Lucia Butler was on duty on Tuesday, October 29. She is a magistrate in Torrent, whose judicial party includes paiporta, The zero zone of the Dana, among other populations devastated by the floods that took ahead The life of 228 people. As he says that it is his custom, he went to sleep soon with the motive of the court at hand in case there was an emergency, unknown to the magnitude of the catastrophe that was being triggered a few kilometers from his home in Valencia. “Little beyond two in the morning I received the call from A Civil Guard of Paiporta, For me a hero, who tells me: ‘Honor, go here that there are many dead. ”

Hero, calls it, because it had spent “six hours holding a man with his body in a tree to save his life,” he thought he had two companions and the woman of one of them inside the flooded parking of the house-cuartel and, despite that, there he was helping in everything possible, he explains butler in his office of the Court of Instruction number 2 of Torrent. Six months after the Dana, this 51 -year -old magistrate lends itself to testimony to this newspaper of that fateful night and the five days later that continued on guard to record the work, « in the midst of horror », of a group of justice officials, forensics and agents of the security force.

He only left paiporta to sleep and to check, once, for herself she was a bulre that the bodies piled up Anyway to the ground in the morgue enabled at Feria Valencia. « They were perfectly cared for and thus transmitted it to family members. It is essential to take care of the victims, » ​​he says. He was also aware of whether he had to go to the lifting of hundreds of corpses in the parking lot of the Bonaire de Aldaia shopping center, which belongs to his demarcation, until he called a command of the UME, which dismantled another of the bulos that circulated on the existence of hundreds of deaths inside. The judge remembers the astonishment of her daughter, 20, for the difference of the reality that her mother told her with what she read on social networks or told her.

After talking with the Civil Guard that early morning, butler called the Forensic Doctor of the Court, who lives in Paiporta. He confirmed that there would be « many dead » and told him that he could not leave his house, surrounded by water. He then went to Elvira Garrido, head of the Institute of Legal Medicine, and is sent a car with a driver and a coroner. « I took the laptop, an agenda and a ball. We didn’t know the magnitude of the disaster. »

Reaching to the town was an odyssey in the midst of darkness, water and mud. In the end, tourism was sunk and the Civil Guard rescued them with its four by four and brought them to the only light around, the star of the Texaco gas station in Paiporta, whose owner opened and offered. There, where the advanced command post would later be mounted, they found minimal conditions to work with few media and a mobile that began to work badly. Being the only point of light, within a few minutes it was filled with citizens who « arrived bleeding », injured, local police muddy to the chest: it became a kind of campaign hospital with two ambulances.

« We saw an apocalyptic situation, a Dantesque panorama, with dead inside the stacked cars, lumps in street. It would be four in the morning when I started calling everyone I could: Pilar de la Oliva (President of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community), to the Ministry, to the Government Delegation, to municipalities, to the Police, » recalls. They had to start raising corpses, preparing a piece for each one. They needed help and many more means. « We were distressed that it was going to be done day, only the noise of the water was heard, and there were corpses on public roads. We could not leave the deceased in view of their relatives, their neighbors. »

At this point, the magistrate stops her story, breathes deep and affects the importance of receiving psychological help, starting with herself. « In this trade you have to have cold and compassionate blood, » says this judge for vocation – « for money, it is not worth it: the one -week guard is 350 euros, for example, » Apostille – that began, however, as a prosecutor in San Sebastián to soon impart justice in the Valencian province: first in Catarroja, then in Swedish and since last year in Torrent. He has nothing but words of praise towards his fellow officials who all launched; He especially criticizes the lack of means for justice, despite being an essential public service, and laments the little time to serve people.

With a firm voice and a gesture vehement, butler takes up his story of October 30. Help began to arrive and delegations were arbitrated to address the numerous surveys of corpses (only 45 dead were located). “It was very important to deliver to each family their deceased perfectly identified in the shortest possible time, with all the guarantees, the minimum of paperwork. But everything had to be done with order: save the living, then take care of the dead on public roads, first of the children and then the elders … there is a criterion. You have to understand people and make them understand that, although your father has died in your arms, you have to give a sample of DNA. Corpses of his relatives home. So, ”he says.

Butler perfectly understands the criticisms of the citizenship that felt helpless, especially the first days. He acknowledges that many media were missing, but he argues that before a shake like the Dana half a year ago « all the media were few. » Remember that just moving between the mud was very complicated. « You have to be prepared to act, both people who make decisions and those who have to help others, » he warns as a lesson that she has learned.

It does not enter into the instruction of the case by Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, or on matters that focus the judicial and political debate as if the sending of the mass alert to the citizenship was « late » and « erroneous », as the magistrate of Catarroja points out in her cars. She has lent itself to Give voice to the group that justice workers during the Dana. 22 judges of 10 judicial parties of the province of Valencia opened proceedings for procedures regarding the deceased and deliver the dead to their relatives. « You will never forget, the feeling of sadness is horrible, but I will either forget the support of my companions. And you have to keep the good things, » he says.