The colleague and the boss of the firefighter killed in a fire in Vilanova, convicted of negligent homicide

BarcelonaJoan Liébana was 30 years old and had recently become a firefighter when on June 17, 2021, he died during a fire at an industrial warehouse in Vilanova i la Geltrú. Almost five years later, his colleague and the corporal in charge of the operation have admitted to a crime of less serious negligent homicide, and have accepted a sentence of fines of 4,500 and 5,400 euros. The two defendants admitted that they did not realize the firefighter had not left the warehouse with them until two colleagues who were ventilating the warehouse found him an hour later.

During that hour, his colleague had been around the warehouse and received medical attention without making any reference to Liébana. He was then transferred to the hospital due to heat and smoke exposure. The defendant corporal also admitted that he did not refer to the number of personnel who had entered the warehouse when he handed over to the next supervisor.

Liébana and the firefighter with whom he formed a pair were the first to enter the warehouse, which was a car workshop, when the fire was still active. As the two defendants have admitted, the sentence states that the two firefighters entered with the necessary protective equipment, holding onto a fire hose that also served as a lifeline. They reached the first section of the stairs leading to the attic, but did not manage to find the source of the fire and returned out of the warehouse. Once outside, they informed the corporal responsible for the operation about the large amount of smoke and the high temperature inside. They had also had difficulties maneuvering with the hose. The corporal, who is one of the two defendants, ordered them to re-enter accompanied by a second pair formed by firefighters from the Sitges station.

He could not ask for help

At that moment, Joan Liébana's colleague asked him to change position, and he took over holding the mouth of the hose. This change involved letting go of the hose momentarily, and it posed a risk because it was the only point of reference they had inside the smoke-filled building. In fact, Joan Liébana did not re-attach to the hose when making the change. He lost his colleagues' position and was left without any spatial reference.

Liébana was left alone in the loft and tried to get out by himself, but ended up going into one of the three rooms of the building. He leaned against the walls looking for a door that would give access to the stairs to go down, but due to the extremely high temperatures, he probably ran out of air reserves and ended up dying. He could not activate the red code alarm nor send any distress message via radio "due to probable burns affecting his left hand, forearm, and chest", explains the ruling.

The other firefighters advanced to the largest room, where they believed the fire's source to be. The corporal also joined them there. Seeing the extremely high temperatures and the absolute lack of visibility, the corporal ordered them to turn around to exit. At 14:24 hours, everyone was out, and it wasn't until 15:20 that two firefighters ventilating found Liébana's body.