Dozens were injured in an explosion at the house of a colonel who was storing gunpowder and three thousand ammunition.

A string of explosions in an apartment where a retired army colonel lived and illegally hid thousands of live ammunition led to panic on Saturday evening, February 24, among residents of a condominium in the Brazilian city of Campinas, 93 km from Sao Paulo. leaving dozens injured.

On Sunday morning, several of those victims were still hospitalized in two hospitals in the city, but none were in danger of dying, and the colonel remained in an undisclosed location after he escaped.

In total, firefighters had to remove 44 residents from outside the building, some of them using large ropes, as there was no way to escape from the stairs filled with thick and toxic smoke emanating from the soldier’s apartment.

34 people had to be taken to hospitals, most of them with poisoning due to excessive gas poisoning.

The most dramatic incident involved a bedridden elderly woman whom firefighters had to leave in the house to prevent the smoke from reaching her, but in the end the woman had to climb out of the window and down into the street, carrying with her enormous strength. assisting her rescuers in a delicate rescue operation using rappelling techniques.

Explosions began to be heard shortly after 19:00 this Saturday local time (22:00 Lisbon time) in the apartment on the first floor where the colonel lived and hid an unimaginable amount of ammunition, gunpowder and even a grenade, with no known intention. .

Shortly after the strong initial explosion, the apartment was engulfed in a massive fire, and then, to the panic of other residents of the building and the entire Rua Hercules Florence in the Botafogo district, a seemingly endless series of gunshots began. provoked by the detonation of ammunition and gunpowder illegally stored by the military.

At dawn that Sunday, police and firefighters were still waiting outside to gain access to the colonel’s apartment, where the concentration of smoke and the temperature of the walls were still very high.

In addition to the soldier’s apartment, which is believed to have been destroyed, at least four other apartments in the condominium suffered significant damage and will require an inspection to determine whether the building can remain habitable or not, depending on the damage caused. to the structure.

According to military police sources who spoke with the colonel before his disappearance, the retired officer admitted that he kept more than three thousand large-caliber shells at home, but did not specify the origin of this amount of ammunition or what he intended to do with it. .

Since the case involved a military man, the police called the army police to arrest the colonel, but when the military arrived, the officer, who gradually left the building, simply disappeared.