In the year two thousand eighteen my brother invited me to spend the weekend in Las Salinas, a town located on the coast of Vargas state, to get to this town, we had to pass through Tacoa, the place where one of the most terrible catastrophes occurred in Venezuela in the 80s. While we were driving around, I observed the gloomy aspect it had, whose predominant color was black because of the oil lava that had covered its streets wrapped in flames, but it was also a symbol of all the terror experienced by the people who were there on that Sunday morning. Images of that tragedy that brought the entire nation into mourning immediately came to my mind.
In Tacoa, it was an unprecedented event that mourned the country in the most festive time of the year, in this town was located a thermoelectric plant, and due to the error of a worker there was an explosion of one of the oil tanks, causing the biggest disaster known in the country until that moment, thousands of people lost their lives due to the oil lava covered in a flame that covered the place, Hours after the first explosion, when it was believed that everything was under control, a second explosion occurred, this time the number of victims was higher since security and rescue groups were at the site, as well as journalists, reporters and cameramen who were covering the event.
I remember sitting at the table having lunch, I had returned early from school, because from that day on I was in recess due to the proximity of the Christmas holidays, what I saw on television was grotesque, the disaster occurred on Sunday, but we knew about it on Monday at noon, at that time there was no internet, therefore, we did not have the immediacy of today.
My mother and I were dismayed by what we were seeing, it looked like scenes from a Hollywood movie, it was incredible that something like this was happening here, the information that most impacted me was that of a reporter who was on top of the tank that exploded hours afterward, she wanted to have the best angle for her shot, not to mention that the cost was going to be very high
The sadness and anguish enveloped the entire population, it had been a terrible disaster, which would not be easily forgotten, mainly for the people who were left living in the vicinity of the place, I have never forgotten it, even though it will soon be 40 years of what happened.
This is my entry for the contest of the month #boom Where were you when...?
Cover image belongs to Marc Szeglat on unsplash
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