The examining magistrate Fabiana Palmaghini sent today to oral and public trial to 17 defendants due to the fire in the warehouse in the Barracas neighborhood of the company “Iron Mountain” in which eight firefighters and two Civil Defense rescue workers died when a wall collapsed while they were trying to put out the fire. The magistrate rejected a series of employees of the defendants and closed the investigation, they informed infobae judicial sources.
Among the defendants there are executives of the company and former officials of the government of the city of Buenos Aires of the General Directorate of Inspection and Control. Also an Iron Mountain security employee who was on hand when the fire started. They are accused of crimes of culpable arson followed by culpable death and injuries.
The event occurred on the morning of February 5, 2014 in the warehouse that the Iron Mountain company had at 1245 Azara Street, in the Barracas neighborhood, where it kept documentation from different companies. The fire alarm began to sound and three employees tried to put out the fire. An hour later, and while firefighters and Civil Defense were trying to put out the flames, one of the walls collapsed. were crushed to death Leonardo Day, Anahí Garnica, Eduardo Conesa, Damian Veliz, Maximilian Martinez, John Monticelli, Jose Luis Mendez Araujo, Sebastian Campos, Pedro Baricola and Franco Ambrosi
The judicial investigation had different moments and in December of last year the Crime Chamber confirmed the prosecution of the 17 defendants. There it was established, and based on the judicial investigation, that there were government failures in the control of the operation of the company’s warehouse. and also that it could never be determined whether the start of the fire was intentional or an accident.
“The expert reports point to the collapse of the metal structure of the warehouse -trusses and columns- as the immediate cause of the collapse of the wall towards the outside, as a result of the fire. However, even though the experts were not able to reliably determine whether the start of the fire was due to a fortuitous event or to a personal, intentional or negligent action, (…) the evidence gathered led to reproaches for the culpable contribution to the risks generated by the fire and its fatal outcome”, said the judge of the Chamber Ignacio Rodriguez Varela.
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With the prosecutions confirmed, Judge Palmaghini closed the investigation. The fiscal Marcela Sanchez and javier moral, the plaintiff lawyer who represents the relatives of the victims, asked that the case go to oral trial. Some defenses of the defendants objected, understanding that there were still pending measures of evidence.
“No other means of evidence have been collected that allow us to assume that the position adopted by both this Court and the Hon. Chamber of Appeals in Criminal and Correctional Matters, nor are there any other pieces that may be produced in the future that could manage to modify such pronouncements, “said the judge to reject the defenses’ proposals in her 178-page resolution to which she agreed infobae. Now the Oral Criminal Court that will intervene in the case must be drawn.
Who will be judged are Oscar Godoy, warehouse security employee who was there when the fire started; Iron Mountain managers Guillermo Lockhart, Hector Eduardo Garcia and Alfredo Sueyras Parra and directors, inspectors and heads of department of the General Directorate of Inspection and Control of the government of the city of Buenos Aires who had to determine the operating, safety and hygiene conditions of the warehouse.
One of the accused is Vanessa Berkowski, ex Supervision and Control Director. Berkowski has already been tried for a similar case. It was about the collapse of the mezzanine of the Beara bowling alley, which occurred in 2010 and in which they died Ariana Lizarriaga and Paula Provedo. In the oral trial Berkowski was acquitted.
On the other hand, four defendants requested that the oral trial be by popular juries of citizens.
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