“Between you and me: I have the Liébana case in mind.” This is how it was expressed Maxim of the Valleyhead of the Servei Tècnic of the Firefighters of the Generalitatin a telephone conversation that he had on December 22, 2021 with a superior, Anthony Ramosalluding to the widespread problem presented by the Autonomous Breathing Equipment (ERA) of firefighters. Joan Liebana died in a fire in Vilanova i la Getrú in June 2021 in circumstances investigated by a court that maintains two firefighters charged who acted in that service together with the victim.
On successive days, Del Valle spoke on the phone on several occasions about Liébana’s death with Ramos, with other firefighters and with the manager of the company. Iturri. During these conversations intervened by the police, Del Valle shows his concern that Liébana’s death may be linked to the blockage of the pressure gauge that affects the firefighters’ breathing equipment, according to the Mossos report to which EL has had access. NEWSPAPER. This report has been incorporated into the case being investigated in a Barcelona court against the leadership of the Directorate General for Fire Prevention and Extinction (DGPEIS) of the Generalitat for alleged irregularities in the award of truck maintenance of the emergency corps. The Catalan police have requested that Liébana’s part be sent to the judge of Vilanova i la Geltrú investigating the death of the firefighter.
According to the aforementioned report, Del Valle tells Ramos that he does not know if they are doing the right thing by not sharing “above” the problem of the ERA, because perhaps “they are assuming or doing something wrong.” He even puts forward the hypothesis that “an accident” occurs that afternoon and that someone then reproaches them for not having shared the information. Ramos, however, replies that “things” are being done “as they should be” and that “stopping all the teams now is outrageous”, since the teams that have caused problems are located in specific “areas”. Del Valle also comments to Ramos that he has “the Liébana issue” on his mind because “there is a possibility that it could happen because of this problem” and affirms that “it would be good” to have “legal advice” to find out if it is convenient to go to the Mossos “to tell what they are seeing”. Ramos replies that he believes that this should be done with “knowledge of the facts”, since what he has are “assumptions” without specifying.
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Del Valle and the manager of the Iturri company, Eduardo Diaz Hervas, also talk about the death of Liébana. Del Valle assures that it is “impossible to prove it [si la muerte se debió a un fallo del ERA de Liébana]although you want, although I would like to”. The Iturri manager replies that it is “very difficult” for any Mossos agent to have the capacity to detect this problem, to which Del Valle points out that the investigators of the Liébana case come to him when in doubt.
All the sources consulted by this newspaper, also from the Conselleria d’Interior, assure that the possibility that Liébana really died due to a failure in his breathing equipment is “remote”.