Fireball death toll climbs towards 300

Press, 14 July 1978, Page 5

Fireball death toll climbs towards 300

NZPA-Reuter San Carlos de la Rapita Surgeons have been working round the clock to try to save badly burned survivors of the Spanish holiday camp disaster, on Tuesday, but officials fear the death toll may reach 300. “It is absolutely certain that 120 people will die in two or three days,” said the Spanish Under-Secretary for Health (Mr Jose de Palacios Y Carvajal). Health Ministry officials have estimated that 170 people were burned alive when a gas tanker lorry crashed into the Los Alfaques camp site, engulfing hundreds of sunbathing tourists in flames.

Dozens of the victims, mostly French or German, were to be buried yesterday in the nearby town of Tortosa, although officials said most of the corpses were still unidentified.

Frogmen and troops have given up the search for more bodies saying they were certain no corpses were left among the scorched remnants of caravans, cars, and tents, or in the sea. The first detailed casualty figures released by the Government said 121 bodies had been counted and more of the victims were dying by the hour. The chief surgeon at Tortosa Hospital said; “Of the 56 people who came through here on Tuesday, perhaps 10 or 12 will survive.” In Barcelona, where the most serious cases were being treated, doctors said only two of 45 survivors were expected to live. At Tortosa, Dr Emilio Encimas said many victims who ran into the sea seeking relief from their burns only intensified their agonies. The interaction of water and the liquefied propylene gas meant that they literally boiled, he said, adding: “With that kind of suffering and injury, most of these people have no chance.” Still unexplained was why the tanker suddenly veered off the road into the camp. A member of the official investigating team has ruled out the possibility of a collision with another vehicle.

The police believed a burst tyre might have caused the driver to lose control; A huge tyre from the lorry was left embedded in the ruined wall lining the camp site. A protest movement was mounting in San Carlos de la Rapita against the passage of lorries with dangerous loads through heavi-ly-populated areas. Several

hundred townspeople, carrying banners saying “No to the Lorries,” blocked traffic through the town on Wednesday evening by sit-1 ting down in the main road, j They pledged to repeat their! protest every day until they' received assurances from the ■ (authorities. I The Tarragona Governor, > Francisco Graupera yesterday issued an order banning trucks with dangerous cargoes from national high--ways. Under the edict, all I trucks carrying volatile car-! goes are now restricted to expressways which charge tolls. Civil guards said lorry drivers regularly used the coastal road through San Carlos de la Rapita to avoid paying a 1000 peseta (about $l2) toll on the nearby autoroute between Barcelona and Valencia. Town councillors told reporters they had sent a report to the Generalitat, Catalonia’s home-rule Government, only 10 days ago warning of the danger from the lorries. “For 1000 pesetas, this wouldn’t have happened,” a camp director said, referring to the toll. The local priest, the Rev. Francisco Vives, said shortly before officiating at a burial service for some of the victims: “The people of my town are shocked. But more than that they are angry because they were not listened to.” At the cemetery in Tortosa, where 104 bodies have been laid in open coffins, tearful relatives on Wednesday tried to identify bodies and charred human remains. Others, many from abroad, went to the devastated camp site only to find that their loved ones were dead or missing. A Frenchman sat crying under bare and blistered trees after discovering his two children had been killed. Officials have not yet established how many people were at the camp. The site’s owners said 800 people were booked in on Tuesday, but a French Consular official said registration of the campers was haphazard, and some had been away on day trips. Antonio Bonin from Barcelona said he watched in horror as flames engulfed the camp as he returned to meet his children. They were killed, with a Colombian girl who was looking after them. Most of the less seriously injured were flown home on Wednesday by their Governments for treatment in specialised burns centres. About 120 vitcims, too ill to be moved, remained in Spanish hospitals.