ZARUMA, ORO

Clara Fierro Prieto returned to see the location of her home that was more than 120 years old. There, he said, he felt pain and helplessness at the thought that he could not take anything out of his possessions.

“I stayed on the street and all my memories remained,” said Fierro, as she was consoled by her sister, a few meters from her house which collapsed into a sewage taped area last Wednesday in the center of Zaruma.

She is one of 300 people living in nearly a hundred homes who have been evacuated as a precaution since last Wednesday night due to the drowning.

On Wednesday, two houses collapsed, one of them his own, and another damaged.

The union says what happened in Zaruma is “evidence of the dire consequences of illegal mining”.

“I was lying on my bed, we heard about 20 explosions and people started yelling at us to get out of the houses, I couldn’t get anything out of my house and in less than a quarter of an hour my house fell,” the woman said.

Fierro lost a bunch of new furniture he had bought a few months ago, his clothes, TVs, a kitchen, a computer, family photos, and more items. “The saddest moment of my life was when they warned us of cracks in the foundations of our house, we could barely get out and my house fell down, and I lost everything…Said the owner of one of the destroyed heritage homes.

He, like other residents, regretted that there were no solutions yet to stop illegal mining. “We lost our homes and no one helped us,” the woman added.

‘Illegal mining has tens of kilometers of excavation underground under Zaruma’

Families are afraid to return to the sewage sector

From Thursday the 16th until the morning of Friday the 17th, the people continued to evacuate their belongings with the help of the fire department, the police, the army and the Red Cross.

“We are taking things from my son’s house which he managed to achieve with great effort, and with what happens I think it will be impossible to go back to live in this sector, because the danger will continue due to illegal miningYuliana Sanchez, who helped relatives load belongings into a rented truck, said.

The electric power service was stopped due to the fall of poles and networks in the area of ​​the stream. Likewise, commercial buildings will have to close their doors, causing economic losses due to the interruption of their activities.

“It has been over 30 years of service to our customers and today we have to leave because we are in dangerSaid the owner of a flower shop located on 10 de Agosto and Bolívar Streets, less than a block from the new stream.

Given the situation, the national government has ordered a geological study to find final solutions in the Cali Colon and other areas affected in recent years in the town of Ourense. In order to coordinate the necessary resources, a declaration of a state of exception was drawn up, in addition, state institutions manage the delivery of aid.

Danger still lurks in the area with the collapse of structures around the sinkhole area, in Colón, November 29 and Alberto Castro Street. The authorities stated that the perimeter of the risk of drowning has been expanded from 25 to 30 metres.

The local Center of Excellence met this morning to further assess the damage. (I)