User:Athzi0325/Fire of Iron Mountain in Buenos Aires (2014)

The fire and subsequent collapse of an Iron Mountain warehouse was an incident that occurred in the City of Buenos Aires (neighborhood of Barracas) on Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at 09:15 a. m. and ten people died, including firefighters and rescuers, while seven others were seriously injured. In February 2015, judicial authorities confirmed that the fire was intentional.

Development
The fire and subsequent collapse of the four walls of the bank records deposit building of the Iron Mountain company located at 1245 Azara, was recorded at 8:30 a. m. The company Iron Mountain arrived in Argentina in 2000, it has offices on Amancio Alcorta Avenue, in the Parque de los Patricios neighborhood, and also units in the districts of La Boca, Lugano, and in a warehouse in Barracas, which is the one that burned down on that day.

Firefighters from the Argentine Federal Police and volunteer firefighters from La Boca, Vuelta de Rocha, San Telmo, and Puerto Madero responded to the fire alarm to extinguish the fire. Civil Defense, agents of the Argentine Federal Police, the Metropolitan Police, and the Argentine Naval Prefecture also attended the scene, assisting in the removal of debris and in the rescue of the people who were trapped by the collapse due to the high temperatures caused by the flames. The incident left seven firefighters and two Civil Defense agents dead.

Employees in charge of the company's fire system were located under the rubble. Seven seriously injured were transferred to different hospitals in the Federal Capital. Among them, there was a volunteer firefighter who underwent surgery for exposed fractures and was out of danger, a man who was discharged from the Ramos Mejía Hospital, two admitted to the Penna Hospital who were not at risk of death, and three hospitalized at the Argerich Hospital.

This was not the first time an Iron Mountain depot in the world suffered a disaster of this nature. It happened in four other warehouses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Italy. "We are deeply saddened by the death of the brave first responders who immediately fought to save our staff and facilities," stated the company in relation to the Barracas case.

Controversies
In 2015, judicial experts determined that the fire in the building in Barracas may have been intentional. Security Secretary Sergio Berni remarked that: "The company had similar losses in other warehouses around the world, with the suspicion that they were intentional. One has to be prudent, nothing can be confirmed or ruled out, but there are antecedents." In February 2014, a few days after the fire, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner met "privately and behind closed doors" with relatives of the ten victims of the fire at the Iron Mountain warehouse. The parents of firefighter Maximiliano Martínez revealed that "Cristina knew that the fire was provoked."

In 2008, the General Directorate of Labour Protection had initiated two inspections, which resulted in the closure of the warehouse. The Inspector of the Assistant Secretary of Labor revealed that his superior, the operational manager of the city's inspection, did not act on two companies by order of the head of the Buenos Aires Government Mauricio Macri who asked that no inspections be carried out on the company and the closures be lifted.

Labor inspector, Edgardo Castro, reported years before the collapse failures in the inspections by the government of Mauricio Macri to the company Iron Mountain. In the same sense, the operational manager of inspections of the Buenos Aires government, Fernando Cohen, admitted in a hidden camera broadcast by the C5N news channel, that the head of Government, Mauricio Macri, spoke on the phone with officials and inspectors to stop closures that they intended to carry out to businesses and establishments, owned by friends of the Communal Chief.

Judicial Expertise
In 2015, the Argentine justice determined that there was a plan to incinerate the entire warehouse, and promote the disappearance of sensitive documents of 600 top-level companies. Among the missing papers are names and documents of the Minister of Economic Development of Buenos Aires, Francisco Adolfo Cabrera, former manager of the La Nación group and HSBC Bank, the financial institution that lost in the fire more than 25,000 boxes that bore the label of "money laundering." Many of these documents, along with other evidence, are being investigated by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). In addition to the Buenos Aires development minister, another senior PRO official is related to Iron Mountain, Carlos Pirovano, undersecretary of Investments of the City and former Cabrera member at HSBC, before both arrived in PRO management.

Two years after the extension of Law 2972, the company benefitted from the management of Mauricio Macri with fiscal exemptions for 5 million pesos, in gross income and ABL, in addition to winning another million pesos in another direct tender.

Alleged Money Laundering
In May 2014, four months after the incident, the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), raided different premises and offices of Iron Mountain in an investigation for money laundering. The AFIP detected suspicious financial maneuvers of the company for 17.8 million dollars between 2007 and 2014. In 2015 the national treasury reported HSBC, one of the firms with the most files burned in Iron Mountain, for facilitating the tax evasion of 4,040 accounts of Argentines without declaring at the Ginebra branch office.

Judicial Implications
The experts of the Federal Police concluded that the fire that occurred on February 2014 at the Iron Mountain warehouse in Barracas, where 10 firefighters lost their lives and sensitive information of banks and financial companies formally suspected of money laundering was destroyed, was intentional.

The intentionality confirmed by the justice regarding the start of the fire in the Iron Mountain deposit, left open an investigation about the reasons that led to committing the incident. From the Financial Information Unit (UIF), they delivered to the justice and the Prosecutor's Office 37 material that supports an alleged agreement between Iron Mountain and its clients to eliminate evidence of potential crimes of an economic nature. In the case of BNP and JP Morgan, boxes were found with the money laundering label and material from offshore accounts. In addition to data from trusts of Cablevisión, of the Clarín Group, and Sideco is also investigated, the company of Franco Macri, father of the Head of Government who ordered not to investigate, which lost among the flames a box with the label of "Coimas Peru".

In a hidden camera that was released in 2014, Edgardo Castro, Inspector of the Undersecretary of Labor CABA, is seen with Fernando Cohen -Operational Manager of inspection of the GCBA, where it is shown that the same Head of Government of Buenos Aires called his officials to avoid closures of the Iron Mountain deposit. In the video, both officials ask an inspector not to investigate because Macri called

A request for a summons was presented for the Minister of Economic Development of the City Government, Francisco Adolfo Cabrera, to respond to legislators about "the serious revelations that emerged from the judicial investigation of the Iron Mountain case" and to explain why the government of Mauricio Macri "not only granted that company a regime of facilities and tax exemptions but, in addition, there are complaints about the existence of a blockade to the complaints of the inspectors who wanted to close the deposit."

In February 2017, the National Criminal Prosecutor's Office of Instruction No. 37 asked the National Criminal Court of Instruction No. 18 to investigate those responsible for the Iron Mountain company and officials of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires of the Federal Superintendence of Firefighters of the Argentine Federal Police, for ... deficiencies, irregularities, negligence and non-compliance on behalf of the company that was responsible for the operation of the damaged establishment, of various control bodies and third parties ...

In July 2017, Chamber VI of the National Criminal and Correctional Chamber of the Federal Capital revoked the decision of Judge Pablo Ormaechea that had declared the criminal action extinguished by prescription and, consequently, had dismissed Inspector Matías Griffo, Inspector Commissioner Raúl Arbor —both of the Superintendence of Firefighters of the Argentine Federal Police— and Ignacio Miguel Aldamiz Echeverría —representative of the Iron Mountain Firm—.

On April 24, 2023, the warehouse where Iron Mountain operated in Barracas caught fire again. The building was closed, with flames that reached an extension of 60 by 20 meters. It is worth highlighting that shortly before the new fire, on April 19, 2023, the company Iron Mountain reported to the Justice that one of the deposits of the property had been vandalized. Likewise, on April 12, 2023, Judge Fabiana Palmaghini sent to oral and public trial the case in which the 2014 fire is investigated. The file has charged 18 people including directors of the company and former officials of the General Directorate of Supervision and Control of the Buenos Aires government, as well as an Iron Mountain security employee who was on duty when the fire started.

The warehouse never stopped working because it was authorized by the Government Control Agency (AGC). The causes of the fire of April 24, 2023 are still unknown and it is also not known if its origin was accidental or intentional.

Victims
The Justice released their identities: Damián Veliz, Eduardo Conesa, Maximiliano Martínez, Anahí Garnica (who was the first woman firefighter of the Argentine Federal Police) and Juan Matías Monticelli, of Fire Station 1 of the Federal Police; Leonardo Arturo Day, Head of Department Zone 1 of the Federal Superintendence of Firefighters of the Federal Police; Julián Sebastián Campos, Metropolitan volunteer firefighter of Vuelta de Rocha, José Luis Méndez, from the Villa Domínico station, and Pedro Baricola, from the General Directorate of Civil Defense of the City of Buenos Aires.

The last victim agonized for twelve days, finally passing away on February 17. He was Facundo Ambrosi, a volunteer firefighter from Vuelta de Rocha.

Reactions

 * The Section Head of the country, Jorge Capitanich expressed the shock and pain of the executive power, which decreed two days of mourning, while the government of the City of Buenos Aires did not order any measure of tribute.
 * By decision of the Mayor José Eseverri, the municipal government of Olavarría joined the mourning for the tragedy of Barracas.
 * The spokesman of the Argentine Football Association, Ernesto Cherquis Bialo, announced that due to the national mourning declared by the tragedy, the presentation of the voices, technology, aesthetics and the new order of the transmission of Football for All (government program) scheduled for that same noon would be postponed to Friday, February 7, when the pain lessens.
 * On Twitter, numerous tweets were shared by netizens on behalf of the firefighters who died then, as nine warriors, part of a supreme sacrifice, as invaluable beings, always indispensable.
 * Pope Francis sent a letter expressing his condolences and greeting the companions and relatives of the victims.
 * The head of Government Ing. Mauricio Macri visited the area of the tragic fire in Barracas and said: "It is a sad day for Argentina" and that "it is the saddest day in history for firefighters"