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Subscribe to RSSColor in this picture is really effective at showing the edges of the burned area. I wonder what options are available to the residents who lost their homes, and whether people in this area have any insurance.
Luis Benavides / AP
A general view of burned houses in the Comuna 13 slum neighborhood of Medellin, Colombia, Thursday, June 3, 2010. A fire broke out leaving dozens of homes destroyed or badly damaged. No deaths have been reported.
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I doubt seriously they had insurance, John.
John, I think Insurance in this part of the world is of a different sort than what we are accustomed to.
This looks like the handiwork of Smokey Bear. He's back for revenge.
I am from Medellín, and I can tell you, these people had to leave their farms in the country to live in the city because of the violence. They have lost everything they had because of our internal war with the guerrilla, so they moved to Medellín, the biggest and nearest city to look for help and a new beginning. Sadly, our government is investing all our money in fighting the guerrilla and has nothing left (or planned) to help these people (los desplazados) out.
The only thing they can do is to build their homes with cardboard on the city's farther hills and try to find a job to survive, but, with this economy, it is not an easy thing to do. They struggle to fit in the city while they belong to the country, and now, they lose all what they had built because of a fire. It sounds kind of unfair to me.
Soma, I was lucky enough to visit Medellin for a short while. It is one of my best memories of Colombia.
You are right. It is incredibly unfair.
Are these homes shown in the photo made of cardboard? How large is this city? I hope what I see in the photo is but one small section of the city. It looks like it was/is a very colorful town - but why do they build so close together? It is like built like one large condominium (condo) development in USA, the way they build this town. It is so sad that people are displaced from both man made and natural disasters. Then after the News Flash we hear no more how people survive these disasters...where did they go, are they still scratching to live? No news media ever goes back to any area of ruin to update people in the world.
Medellín is a large city with more than 3 million people living there. This slums are outside Medellín, where the buildings end. Usually the Government provides a little amount of money so they can rebuild their homes, but they lose all they had inside.
I live here in Medellín, fortunately in a nice, expensive area. I don't know this area where the fire occurred, a bit far from the main city, but I know it is very poor. It is similar to a fire in this same city that occurred a few years ago that also destroyed a section of a similarly poor neighborhood called Oasis - Moravia, where I have worked with impoverished children for several years, and where the life of my little friend, sweet 5 year old Wilson was savagely (death by fire is savage) taken. The houses in most of these poor neighborhoods are mostly made of old dry wooden planks and cardboard for walls, with some adobe blocks forming a partial wall or two, if they are lucky enough, and metal or plastic sheets being piled over for ceilings, where leaks from the rain are a part of life.
I live here in Medellín, fortunately in a nice, expensive area. I don't know this area where the fire occurred, a bit far from the main city, but I know it is very poor. It is similar to a fire in this same city that occurred a few years ago that also destroyed a section of a similarly poor neighborhood called Oasis - Moravia, where I have worked with impoverished children for several years, and where the life of my little friend, sweet 5 year old Wilson was savagely (death by fire is savage) taken. The houses in most of these poor neighborhoods are mostly made of old dry wooden planks and cardboard for walls, with some adobe blocks forming a partial wall or two, if they are lucky enough, and metal or plastic sheets being piled over for ceilings, where leaks from the rain are a part of life.