Joan (Schiavon) Huesca (1928 - 1987)
Enrique Huesca (1909 - 2003)
Mercedes (Formento) Huesca (1924 - 2004)
Eduardo Huesca (1947 - )
Introduction: In the spring of 1978, my father, Gilbert Huesca, sent my mother, Joan Huesca, then 49, on a flight to Mexico City to visit his family while he stayed behind in California to tend to business matters. During this visit, she and three of our relatives were caught in one of the deadliest fires in Mexico City's history, known as the Astor Fire. My mother wrote a letter to thank her rescuers shortly after returning home to California. She also recounted this nightmarish tale many times to my father, my sisters, and me in the years that followed, always emphasizing that life and the people in it are gifts to be treasured. This is Part Five in a seven-part series about that night, based on my mother's recollections, those of my relatives, and my research on the event. - L.H.T.
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| My mother snapped this photo of two of the firemen who rescued her from
a burning building. She never learned their identity. Shortly after this photo was taken, they were said to have perished in the fire. |
My cousin, Eduardo Huesca,
had watched from the terrace of his family's apartment as members of the Mexico
City Heroic Corps of Firemen escorted his parents, aunt - my mother - and neighbors down the
long telescopic ladder to safety. The street below was teeming with
frenzied activity as ambulances and more fire crews arrived to battle one of
the worst blazes in Mexico City's history.
Some time before, at 12:20
a.m. on Saturday, May 13, 1978, several bombs had exploded in the Astor
Department Store. Eduardo and his parents, Enrique and Meche, were one of
two families who lived in the penthouse apartments in the La Galia Commercial
Building next door to Astor. The Astor fire had spread to La Galia,
consuming the first couple of floors and trapping the eight people on the
seventh floor.
"There were a
couple of guys still up there with me," Eduardo recounted in a recent interview
not long ago, "and they were ready to take me down the ladder. One
of them said, 'Listen, do you smoke?' and I nodded at him. 'Well,
can I bum a cigarette off you?' It was a strange request, but
I lit a cigarette and offered it to him.
"'Look,' the guy
said, 'this is big. There's no way we'll be able to put this fire
out. It's gonna have to go out by itself. That'll take four, maybe
five days.' He took a drag of the cigarette. 'It's gonna be a long
haul, so we'd better enjoy this while we can.' He passed it to his buddy
and his buddy passed it to me."
They all took turns smoking the cigarette in their final minutes. "Okay, turn off the
lights in there," one of them said to Eduardo, pointing to the door.
"Let's get out of here." (1)
As one of the firemen
positioned himself behind my cousin, the others harnessed them securely
together, and they began making their way down.
Thankfully, the fire
in the La Galia building was not visible from the façade. "That was
a good thing," Eduardo remembered. "The fire was burning from the
inside. The 'cube,' what we called the interior opening of the building -
formed a kind of chimney that forced everything upward. It mixed the fire
with the air and just sucked it all upward. Fortunately for us, it was
slower to move outward."
When Eduardo reached the ground, my uncle Enrique was
standing beside an ambulance. My
mother and aunt Meche were sitting inside. A reporter from 24 Horas (24
hours), a prominent news program, was peppering them with questions: How many
dead are inside? Tell us how many dead?
"He didn't
realize that it was an office building and that no one else lived there," Eduardo recalled.
"He just kept asking questions and wouldn't believe us when we said
there was no one else inside. It was probably too late to change their minds.
I think that was already the word in the newsrooms."
The firemen who had
rescued my mother returned to the ambulance with her purse, which one of them
had retrieved from the rooftop terrace. Incredulous, she thanked them
profusely and asked them to wait a minute while she took their picture "so I can remember
you." They smiled broadly for her before running off
toward Astor to help their comrades. She never learned their names.
Sometime later, word
would come back to the ambulance that the firemen who had rescued my mother had
died in action in the Astor building.
In her letter to the
fire department a month later, my mother wrote:
When I learned that
seven brave heroes of your department had lost their lives, my heart went out
to them and their families. God must have a very special place close to
Him for these seven loving, courageous men. I will always remember them
in my prayers.
. . . A few days after the fire, I saw a television program in which an official of the Fire Department...stated that the most important quality of a Fireman in the Federal District was the ability to love. The love, patience and concern of all of you was outstanding. (2)
. . . A few days after the fire, I saw a television program in which an official of the Fire Department...stated that the most important quality of a Fireman in the Federal District was the ability to love. The love, patience and concern of all of you was outstanding. (2)
The
family stayed in the street for several hours under the watchful care of a doctor and first responders. At about six in the morning, Uncle Enrique turned to
his son. "Eduardo, let's pray to God that this is over soon," he said.
"Let's get out of here - there's nothing more we can do." (3)
Eduardo thought of what the firemen had said to him earlier on the
roof about the fire not going out anytime soon but decided against telling his
father. He and my uncle helped my mother and my aunt out of the ambulance, and they all left the area on foot to find a public telephone.
 |
| Enrique Huesca in front of the home he and Meche moved to after the fire. He lived there until his death in 2003. |
Puzzled, Enrique responded he hadn't. "Well, I do have some news for you. We all had to leave the building during the night because it was burning. We'll be leaving for your house soon." (4)
He hung up the phone and led the group to the nearby parking garage to get their cars, and they drove to Enrique
Jr.'s home in the Del Valle neighborhood.
(1) Huesca, Eduardo. Telephone interview. April 7, 2013.
(2) Excerpt from letter dated June 14, 1978, from Joan Huesca to the
Mexico City Heroic Corps of Firemen
Mexico City Heroic Corps of Firemen
(3) Huesca, Eduardo. Telephone interview. April 7, 2013.
(4) Huesca, Enrique. Telephone interview. April 6, 2013.
NEXT: Part 6 - Aftermath
To read the other installments in this series, please click on the links below:
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Copyright © 2013 Linda Huesca Tully
Did you know, or are you a member of the Huesca or Estrada families, or do you remember the Astor fire of 1978? Share your memories and comments below.
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