Massive blaze engulfs at least 5 floors of Caracas govt bldg (Venezuela)

[DuctapeFatwa]

Fire has broken out in the eastern tower of the 56-floor Parque Central complex in central Caracas affecting several floors and suites of government offices. The blaze broke out around midnight Saturday, continuing well into the late morning hours of today Sunday. According to information from Caracas Metropolitan Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno the cause is not yet known.

The official State news agency Venpres reports that the fire engulfed the 34th floor all the way up to the 38th level, damaging Ministry of Infrastructure (MINFRA) and the National Institute of Civil Aviation offices.

More than 100 firemen were deployed to deal with the emergency situation and according to Fire Chief Briceno, toxic smoke inhalation had affected 25 fire fighters ... as of this report no civilians have been reported injured although 13 people had been taken to hospital for treatment as the blaze went into its 15th hour.


Efforts were hampered by the fact that water pumps were not working properly and the building was not equipped with fire extinguishers..
"The direct impact of the fire was on floors 34 thru 38 ... where on a normal workday some 700 officer workers would have been trapped. The situation is critical on level 35, where there have been spontaneous combustions taking place..biggest problem we have right now is water...

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=23148

Note: headline changed from

Massive blaze engulfs at least five floors in Parque Central of government offices as fire fighters struggle to contain the blaze in skyscraper; 25 reported injured

for length, clarity

[ret5hd]

1. well, the first questions i have...

is:

who heads the Ministry of Infrastructure (MINFRA) and the National Institute of Civil Aviation offices? Were they opposition supporters? If so, were they apt to be canned soon? If so, were they destroying papers and the fire got out of hand?

I know, not everything is due to criminal activity by gov't agents, but...just wonderin'.

[Judi Lynn]

2. IF it's a "set fire," it surely wouldn't have anything to do with the man

who was just reaffirmed as Venezuela's President.

I'd look for the childish brats in the opposition, who can't bear share the authority with a non-European descended citizen.



Burning building du jour.

[ret5hd]

21. i hope that i didn't imply anything other than what you said, JudiLyn...

because what YOU said is exactly what i meant to imply. i re-read my post, and anything other than support for hugo is due only to my poor abilities of expression.

[NoMoreMsNiceGirl]

3. This has the stench of a Reichstag fire

It could very well be used as a slide into an open dictatorship rather than the current state of affairs that has managed to please the poor and homeless enough to keep them on-board. This could be the move needed to overcome the opposition to full government control of the people.

[Judi Lynn]

4. They overcame the opposition legally by winning the recall

which was absolutely demanded by the opposition.

Hugo Chavez won. He is the very well elected President of Venezuela.

You'll have to go all the way to the right-wing to find behavior like this.

[NoMoreMsNiceGirl]

8. He won a majority but the large minority still needs reeled in

If this can be blamed on the opposition then Chavez can openly attack and research them until they are either eliminated or discredited enough to take them out. I'm not ready to blindly accept a leader with such strong ambitions as Chavez has for the total control over the people. I was born in the AM but not this morning.

[Judi Lynn]

10. A man determined to become a despot would have imprisoned

the people responsible for the coup a LONG time ago. He didn't, and it's not because he was afraid of offending them.

There are DU'ers who were here reading every word posted for days from a DU'er who was living near Caracas at the time of the coup. DU'ers started getting informed on Venezuela in a hurry at that time. Many DU'ers are well read on Venezuela by now.

Can't sell them on the opposition fiction here.

[NoMoreMsNiceGirl]

12. It pays to keep an open mind and not blindly trust any new government

If you are 100% confident that Chavez has only the well being in mind for his voting base then I'm happy for you. I'm not gullible enough to only listen to the glowing reports of how perfect and altruistic Chavez just happens to be.

[The Magistrate]

20. Col. Chavez, Ma'am

Has had more than sufficient provocation already to gaol the opposition leadership, were it his purpose to do so. That he has not must be reckoned greatly in his favor. The fact remains that it is simply not possible to improve the condition of the great mass of the Venezuekan people without disadvantaging the very small minority that has mulcted the national income for generations. They can be expected to squawk at it, but the sound need not be taken as any indication of vile tyranny....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[AP]

22. Only the most uninformed person would have this opinion.

[lynx rufus]

11. Chavez could, but he will not

He is not human garbage like GWB

[bemildred]

13. No need to be blind.

But you have to be a bit tortured in your reasoning to think that
he went to all that trouble to get a new Constitution in place
and to make sure everybody has a copy of it, and to submit to
a recall under it, so that now when he does not need to he could
abrogate it and appoint himself dictator.

[AP]

24. And who needs a Reichstag fire when you've been kidanpped and coup'ed?

How stupid.

[bemildred]

6. So, you figure they are gonna attack Colombia or Brazil first? nt

[rooboy]

7. Yeah, holding that referendum was the first step into dictatorship.

:dunce: :dunce: :dunce:

[lostnfound]

23. How awful, a government attempting to please the poor.

That is his real crime.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Gee, I thought office towers that catch fire collapse

in a few hours?

[NoMoreMsNiceGirl]

9. If you add thousands of gallons of jet fuel they sure do

I suspect the arsonists did not have the means to supply that much fuel and had to depend on whatever fuel the building had on hand. Chairs, curtains and desks have much less BTUs than an airliner full of fuel.

Know what I mean?

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Most of the jet fuel burnt off in the fireball

that is not what caused the WTC to collapse.

[NoMoreMsNiceGirl]

16. No, it did NOT mostly burn off in the fireball

Jet fuel dos not burn without being mixed with oxygen. The initial fireball only burned what fuel had enough oxygen to provide combustion in those seconds. Unless there was a majority of oxygen per pound of fuel at that moment the rest of the fuel leaked about and burned only as the available oxygen was provided. There was no turbocharger or other forced air feed to balance the thousands of pounds of fuel. Plain and simple chemistry here.

Yes, the fuel burning did weaken the steel and cause the structure to pancake once the potential energy was released and gravity took over. Try dropping a 100 lb ball from your 2nd floor to your first floor and compare it to just setting the ball on the 1st floor.

Out of curiosity what do you suspect caused the WTC to collapse?

[sofa king]

17. Howdy, NoMoreMsNiceGirl!

Welcome to DU. I wouldn't waste too much time with our resident conspiracists. They have a penchant for skipping the real ones and making up their own.

Tell 'em that there are half a dozen proteges of Leo Strauss controlling American foreign policy and they stare blankly, but show 'em a Flash movie in impact font about planes crashing into buildings or how depleted uranium is creating thousands of mutant children in Iraq, and they're all over it.

Still, it's good to have them on our side. Some of 'em are showing talent as real researchers, and they'll have the rest of their lives to document the Bush administration's real crimes.

[illuminaughty]

19. The fact that these are proteges of Leo Strauss

makes it even more obvious that MIHOP is a distinct possibility. And the resident conspiracists have quite a large portion of the world and their governments agreeing with them.

It's always hard to believe "your daddy did it"
How much research have you done on depleted uranium? I have read the heated arguments here on this subject and while both sides have credible points the evidence is showing that depleted uranium is creating this problem. They are now testing all the soldiers since many are coming back ill and their wives have given birth to deformed children.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/30/1411222

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. I offered no conspiracy

All I said was that it wasn't burning jet fuel.

The planes were not fully loaded with fuel when they took off. A fair bit of it was used up at take off. More of it burnt off in the fire ball. The fuel itself would have been disbursed over a wide area and burnt off relatively quickly. What was left would have been enough to ignite the office furniture, structure and other materials. It was sort of like dousing the charcoal in your grill with lighter fluid. By the time the coals get going, the lighter fluid is long gone.

Now has for why the towers fell? I don't know. But I have not heard any explanation from the government that you can't drive a train through the holes.

[daleo]

15. New efforts to destabilize the government?

Of course it could have just been an accidental fire. I wish I could be more an "accident theorist" - I do try sometimes.

[ladybugg33]

18. Time for Chavez to lock up the "opposition" and label them terrorists

It works for Russia; it works for Israel; it works for the US. If the opposition in Venezuela aren't "terrorists" what are they. They are trying to over throw an elected government. They had two failed coup attempts. An attempted assassination was made on Chavez. What more do they need? Call the opposition "al-qaeda" and get on with it!!