The Los Alfaques Campground Disaster (Spain 1978)

You would have thought that camping by the beach would be about as safe as you could get, but for the unlucky patrons of the Los Alfaques campsite there was to be no escape from tragedy. Here is the story of a truly shocking event...
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[@stuartf2946]

I vaguely remember this, terribly tragic. Even today, large companies have that deniability immediately after anything goes wrong, even when it's clear they have no deniability. Thanks for your efforts Mr Raven.

[@curtvote1099]

Like Boeing?

[@yikesgal4117]

It’s tragic how all these people had such a horrible death, it’s also very sad how one Colombian family was never able to return home…

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

Sounds like many families were never able to return home.

[@blacksabbathmatters3365]

You sir are one of the finest narrator's in the business!! Thank you for the awesome content and all of your hard work.

[@marlenegreyling8620]

I agree. So easy to listen to as English is not my home language.

[@caileanthomson1286]

Wow, never seen the footage from that 2007 movie. Brings the disaster into scary reality. Good find, Raven.

[@CoraBuhlert]

That was a German made for TV movie and it was remarkably good. In Hollywood disaster movies, you can usually predict who will survive and who will die, but this movie turned those rules on its head and lots of characters died I expected would survive and vice versa.

[@egomartini]

I was just thinking of the Biescas campsite flash flood disaster in1996. Spain has had it's share of horrific campground tragedies -

[@antontustin2770]

Since 96 I’ve been more aware of my camping ground! ESP when next to an alpine river!

[@travelerforever8849]

@@antontustin2770 true... so many tragedies happened when the water surge came in the middle of the night

[@cathyb1273]

I have watch a video of the Biescas disaster, I thought it was here but it is on another channel. This was terrible too.

[@h-j.k.8971]

Yes, this is the Spain I got to know on my hollidays in the 1970`s. It was quite relaxing as long as nothing went wrong.

[@iamabuki]

Yes….glad you’re back!

[@robertwilloughby8050]

I think I have mentioned this before, but a much luckier tanker accident happened in June 1967, in my hometown of Dewsbury. A tanker carrying Ethylene crashed into Dewsbury Town Hall due to the driver suffering a heart attack. The authorities didn't know at first that it was carrying Ethylene because this was before the regulations for what I call the "3YE" boards. Luckily, an evacuation was achieved without any further accident, but one flame, and no more Dewsbury! This accident sped up the introduction of "3YE" boards greatly. The only casualty was the driver, who died of his heart attack.

[@samuelrichards5931]

This is just one of those tragedies where no matter how often you watch it, it gives you chills of how such a sunny and fun place, could be turned into a scene as terrible as this, all because of a careless refinery company for not caring about health and safety concerns in their deliveries. I think as a future video, you'd be good at covering the Humberto Vidal Explosion that occurred in Puerto Rico on 21st November 1996.

[@deanothemanc5281]

Literally horrific. Rip to all who perished. Always hits harder when it's children involved 😢.

[@Tracy-zr9mg]

Oh my God! I can't think of a Raven's Eye video that is more terrifying than this one! This is an absolute nightmare! Burned alive and nowhere to run oh my God! This one gave me goosebumps!😬 Great video!!👍👍

[@elliottprice6084]

The company that owned the tanker that caused this horrific tragedy reminded me of Pemex, as in they tried to blame everyone else for their actions that caused the disaster. Utterly shocking. RIP to all the victims

[@geminidefect]

what about the investors? they drive corporate greed. yes, the general public who buy shares so they can lazily retire on others labour. i blame everyone.

[@DamianMaisano]

I didn’t realize just how many failings there were, like the driver not knowing what he was carrying and the tank not even being rated for hazardous gasses. That’s just horrifyingly inept

[@ArchTeryx00]

Although it was a vastly smaller tragedy, the Green Acres campground disaster comes to mind too. This was when a Canadian campground by Pine Lake in Alberta was hit with a mile-wide F3 tornado. They had no warning. The Canadian weather authorities had issued a "severe thunderstorm warning" but had not issued any tornado warnings. The campground was prepared for a thunderstorm. What they got instead was a giant tornado with 200 mph (320 kph) winds. The campground was virtually wiped off the face of the planet. 12 were killed outright and 100 were critically injured. It only took about 5 minutes to happen. The Canadian weather authority *then* issued a tornado warning - by then, the tornado was visible for up to 10 miles away. But it was too late for the folks at the Green Acres campground. Unlike this tragedy, which was purely man-made negligence, that one was at least purely accidental. The tornado occurred in extremely unusual circumstances, it was far out in rural land (the first clue there WAS a tornado was when people reported it), and it touched down almost on top of the campground. Under those circumstances, there was little anyone could have done. Like this disaster, those poor people were just in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

[@57Jimmy]

I remember that one! The whole of Western Canada was in the grip of severe weather. It affected us even in the South of BC. I was riding my 750 Virago from Vancouver Island to the Kootenays with my mother riding shotgun. What should have been a beautiful warm trip turned bitterly cold. By the time we got to Trail area I was hypothermic to the point of being beyond shivering and almost impossible to talk. Mom fortunately did not experience that hypothermia. She was chilled, but shocked as to my condition! Remember it like yesterday. Massive power outages everywhere as a result.🥶🥶🥶🥶

[@brettadams6734]

I’ve never heard of this one, as a Canadian. But I was young when it happened.

[@ArchTeryx00]

@@brettadams6734 To be fair not many people outside those immediately affected HAVE heard of it. It was a very rare event, but it took place out in the middle of literal nowhere. There is a picture or two of the tornado and the aftermath at Green Acres, but that's about it.

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

​@@57Jimmy just for the record, they make great heated gear. A bigger bike like a GoldWing could handle a full suit w socks and gloves, but even a smaller one could do a vest. I'm also a big fan of full farings and lowers for this reason. I've used the suit and gloves at 15F. You don't even notice the cold. GoldWings also do extremely well on ice and snow. With upgraded tires (what's stock but better model of tires), I've never slipped at all, nor locked the brakes. 1994 SE.

[@markchalled3976]

Great video on a horrible disaster. Loved the beginning of the video where you mentioned that some situations can be seen as inherently dangerous. But camping by the sea? I had never heard that they did not figure out why the truck stopped. Keep up the great work.

[@hostrauer]

They tried to figure it out, but anyone who was close to the tanker and knew exactly what happened was obliterated by the explosion. The only surviving eyewitnesses were a good distance away from the blast site with more vague descriptions, so they never were able to pinpoint exactly what went wrong.

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

No significant prison sentences, and pitiful compensation payouts - surprise surprise.

[@andrefiset3569]

The Paris Match magazine was disrespectful publishing gruesome photos of the deads.

[@Heike--]

They're corporate journalists, what does anyone expect from them? They are the equivalent of tobacco executives. They peddle a product they know is harmful.

[@izzatfauzimustafa6535]

1940s until 1980s were the worst periods for decency in the world of journalism, and pictures of charred bodies or corpses were just one of such examples of vile approach to increase readership of newspapers & magazines back then. Those were the earliest forms of "pics or it didn't happen" mentality, and almost all mainstream media outlets were in the frenzy of getting the most gory, haunting or bloody pictures that they could find for their much needed big news stories. Also, there were untold stories of news reporters and photographers from those dark days of "blood & guts news scoop" ended up suffering mental breakdown and self exiting due to the sheer stress from having to see mangled or decomposing bodies too frequently.

[@Heike--]

@@izzatfauzimustafa6535 Good! Those "journalists" are the enemy of the people.

[@stevee8472]

I think it was mostly just the french lol, look how photographers behaved in paris re princess diana

[@izzatfauzimustafa6535]

@@stevee8472 It wasn't just a French thing back then. It was a common "morbid sensationalism" culture when most newspapers and magazines around the world were owned and managed by mentally twisted individuals, editors, publication houses or upper-class families in their respective countries. Unless if you're effing rich enough to sue them, chances are even celebrities would be at risk of having their dead bodies being photographed and featured on newspapers and magazines

[@RuthShelton-ou4id]

Thank you for remembering what happened back then. I hope safety changes have taken place but they'll aways be greedy company's -- that will sadly put profits over safety. Those poor people.❤ Thank you for the videos--- Hopefully folks can learn from them.

[@sadeva6532]

The "seating" position isn't actually because they were sitting. It's called the pugilistic attitude, caused by tissue shrinkage due to the heat (the more dehydrated the tissue, the more pronounced the pose with flexed arms and legs and clenched fists).

[@glennzanotti3346]

I was in Spain at the time, and remember the news stories. I'd forgotten about it over the years, but this video brought it all back.

[@benp4339]

Great video as always! Probably a more recent one you could cover is the Boksburg explosion in South Africa (2022)

[@petenztube8592]

I hear the phrase 'cost cutting' on a lot of disaster videos...

[@adamlee3772]

Especially pertinent given the report to the Grenfell disaster coming out two days ago and people like Jacob Rees-Mogg wanting "a bonfire of red tape"

[@sandrashevel2137]

This is awful. I never heard of this event. RIP to all the souls lost

[@chdreturns]

Because those involved invoked the EU's Right to Forget law and wiped it off search engines. because "It would hurt the campgrounds business" The campground still operates under a different name btw.

[@leejones5026]

Great video, Raven! Say, could you do a video on the, Woo Bum-kon incident?

[@zeropoleziax]

I second this

[@TimDecker989]

Great video on this tragedy. I believe the channel Fascinating Horror also covered this terrible tragedy.

[@rhedosaurus2251]

It's always nice to see another video from you.

[@vanCaldenborgh]

The last picture in this video has an interesting coincident: The magazine on the left of of the table just says "Never Forget" in Dutch and nothing else.

[@strangefruitlovex]

Nice well done on 100k The Raven's Eye

[@akeman21]

Great work as always sir! 👍 I can't believe your channel is not bigger, it is great story telling...maybe because all are sad. Anywasy keep up the good work.

[@stevenmacdonald9619]

Everything went wrong - Can be explained, even though the odds of such complete tragedies are so very, very high. In the late 1980's, the aptly named, James T. Reason of the University of Manchester, England, developed the Swiss Cheese Model of accident causation. This explains how many levels of safety are needed to prevent the alignment of disaster, and only when those holes are not covered, they can combine to cause such horrific events such as this.

[@vinny142]

Indeed, it is always a sequence of events. It starts with five safeguards and then one fails but the other four keep things safe so nobody does anything. Then the second fails but the other three keep things safe so nobody does anything, then three fail, and four, and nobody does anything because that last safety stops accidents. And then one day that last safety fails... and that would not have been a problem if only they had fixed any of the other four in time.

[@mrdyvig]

I used to work in the oilfield on a snubbing rig, and this was our nightmare scenario that was always a spark away.

[@50sRockChick]

Holy cow. That’s horrendous.

[@alisondavies8499]

Welcome back

[@andreaslermen2008]

I remember this accident, since the pictures were very scary, when I was a child and my dad drove trucks.

[@neptunenavalmods4420]

Big company, with all their money, couldn't be bothered to pay a toll. So 217 ppl get crisped. I love how half the stories on here are caused by "cost saving measures". See also Bhopal, Whiddy Island, etc. etc.

[@RindaJane]

Being a family of campers this breaks my heart 💔 I've not heard of this tragedy. I can't imagine what these families went through. Rest in Peace to all who lost their lives 🕊 🕊 🕊

[@kmacksb]

I remember clearly when this happened. So horrific, and so senseless.

[@lyedavide]

Every law, rule and procedure pertaining to safety is written in the blood of mostly innocent victims. So too is the saying that if something does go wrong, chances are that it will go wrong in the worst possible way at the worst possible time. RIP to all those who died in this tragic and totally preventable catastrophe.

[@elmin82]

I'm glad to see you again. .

[@paulocruz1544]

Ocean boiled, imagine that.

[@vinny142]

It's a figure of speech, there were probably some very hot puddles of water, but the actual sea can't be boiled by just pooring burning gas on top of it, there is simply too much water.

[@sonjastarr1364]

The sea right next to them would have been.

[@eustacethemonk2176]

Another awesome video! Thank you :D

[@FinnishLapphund]

I feel sorry for everyone who was there that day, those who died, those who survived getting burnt (some might still be having physical troubles from it?), and all those who simply saw the horrors up close, and have to live with those memories.

[@mikethespike7579]

This was chilling for me because one of my work colleagues used to take his holidays on exactly that coast. I remember how he used to tell us how great it is there, but a pain in the backside driving down there pulling a caravan. We didn't know if this was the camping site he was on and it took three days before we heard that he was alright. That said, these days, trucks transporting such dangerous cargo are allowed to take only stipulated routes defined by the authorities.

[@nemesis8664]

I was there that day, being only 2 yo. My parents managed to save me and my sister, my older brother wasn't so lucky. That was one of the most tragic days in Spain history.

[@toddsmith1617]

😢

[@miapdx503]

What a nightmare. People were relaxing, enjoying their vacation, and all hell broke loose. Thank you for bringing this story to us. I eas nineteen at the time, working hard partying hard, and I don't remember this at all. I was a busy little bee...😏

[@Jen-rose76]

Omg i have never heard of this tragedy. I’m literally speechless. Every summer for the past 17 years I’ve joined my husband’s entire family on family reunions. Every time it is camping. It’s the one thing I really enjoy doing. I’ve been thinking about making it my children’s and my grandchildren’s family get together fun thing to do. I can’t even imagine. I mean of all the Things you think about when going camping. All the Dangers this would not even be anywhere on my list. Making sure I have all the tents and food and bathing suits, the coolers and blankets etc but never ever would any of us have us all being burned alive. Camping is being in nature. It’s walking trails swimming in the lakes. But it is never everyone burning to death!! It blows my mind. I just can’t even fathom it. I am so so truly sorry to all those hurt to all those lost. I am so truly sorry to all the family and friends left behind. Wow just wow. R.I.P. 🩵🙏🏽🩷x200 plus. Love and support to all Of those whom I’m Sure still have ptsd to this day. 😭

[@dennis2376]

Thank you.

[@BradGryphonn]

I'm 60 years old, and live in Australia. I was going on 15 years old when this happened, and I still clearly recall the news reports and reading about it in the paper. It was a huge explosion.

[@David19553]

Extremely good. Live long and prosper.🖖

[@LuCKy-rn1nz]

There's also a German movie referencing it

[@krevo6c]

Great Video.

[@siccodierdorp6947]

10:07 the left magazine reads 'never forget' in Dutch....

[@jasontodd8071]

Thank you for translating!👍😊

[@6thmichcav262]

On a hot day, driving a truck in 1978 which may (probably) not have had air conditioning, perhaps the coast route also offered a cooler drive for the driver? Tragic, nevertheless.

[@mortenfrosthansen84]

They were still talking about this in the late nineties... Due to a series of explosions in camping, since the gas bottle usually placed in the front wasn't required a security connection. It brought back the memories of other fiery incidents. Camper vans and trailers, and the equipment they hold, are extremely flammable

[@richatom71]

I remember this a child .It was just awful .

[@lynstrom940]

The Spanish government should have turned the site into a memorial garden, not let it be renamed and used by unwitting holidaymakers from then until now. Who would willingly camp there if they knew about this disaster? But then, they would need to put their hands in their pockets.

[@junebugjunebug4492]

Wow,what a messed up trucking business. Terrible

[@plus5514]

So fireman's have a siesta time when alarm begins...

[@chicagogyrl4846]

Too much propane and too many people!

[@SeverityOne]

I remember this, vaguely, as I was only 8 at the time. The name change from Las Alfaques is quire recent. It retained the name for decades. Spain has a 'right to be forgotton' legistation. I'm not familiar with the reasoning behind or the details of this legislation, but it boils down to that you can sue to have your online details removed. The Las Alphaques campsite sued Google to have all references to the disaster removed. Apparently, running into pictures of twisted, charred dead bodies is a bit of a put-off for many people when booking a summer holiday. Faced with this, the Spanish court ruled that they didn't have jurisdiction because Google is a foreign company. (I stand to be corrected on the details: I'm doing this from memory.) So it appears that instead they decided to change their name. Why they didn't do so in the first place is a mystery to me, but there you go.

[@janette2691]

I just watched a video on this tragedy yesterday but it was in spanish 😅. On a serious note those poor people 😔

[@mysticwolf007]

I remember watching the German movie a few years back and it sent chills down my back to this day..just imagine enjoying your holliday, the next being on fire, the pain..then desperately try to get to the sea, but it is boiling 😣😖

[@paulsmodels]

Big companies like this are pretty much all the same. Money/profit is the god they worship, and they will do their best to reject any of the blame. They are evil.

[@HammarixSwe]

I thought I knew about most of these kind of things, but I have never heard about this one which is crazy due to the number of victims.

[@briantaylor9285]

Horror beyond words

[@charcolew]

The main objection to health and safety measures is always money, so it seems absurd that the people who complain loudest about "health and safety gone mad" are among the poorer members of society, the ones who spare the rich and the corporations a lot of embarrassment and expense.

[@PSI-qf8bq]

Excellent point

[@chicagogyrl4846]

If the max is 260, how and why were 1,000 there??!

[@toddsmith1617]

Money!!!!! Dah

[@ragnapodewski4694]

Always the same...maximizing of profit without regarding human lives.

[@toddsmith1617]

Warren commission test skull?

[@mattwilliams3456]

Everything about this is horrific, but that response time for the fire department was absolutely terrible.

[@streetwithoutjoy]

Bleeding jesus this might be the worst thing you've covered yet

[@draculastraphouse7863]

This is the result of too many idiots getting together in one small place, a tragedy WILL happen in this situation

[@kenharris5390]

Were any senior management jailed?

[@rolfsinkgraven]

It was a real disaster, even justice was a disaster, after that we had more fires in Europe and floods on campsites, happy camping girls and boys.

[@iangrice329]

1 hour for the fire fighters to arrive 😮

[@ronanrogers4127]

Maybe the firefighters were having siesta?

[@eddjordan2399]

nylon tents some people heat sealed inside there plastic nightmares.

[@deenasmusicbox]

@00:54 did anyone happen to notice the side of beef, that little girl with the blonde hair, had on her plate??? OMG!! Talk about portion control maybe??? 😂😂😂

[@albertafarmer8638]

Horrific! I hope all the dead were saved and are in heaven.

[@dominiclee5786]

10:31 For 2 second, I thought it was the list of those who perished during this very unfortunate tragedy. Apologizes to those who are offended.

[@The_Defiant_One]

I sell _propene_ and _propene_ accessories...

[@janette2691]

Strickland Propene does not have a vending machine. It smells and I thank god every day I get home that I didn't get exploded.

[@alexlyons5856]

That's scary what happened easily Prevented not to happened

[@adamlee3772]

Classic Swiss cheese model.

[@robert.257]

It's a shame it takes a tragedy for common sense laws to be implemented.

[@Heike--]

Propeen? Propeen and propeen accessories, I tellyawhut.

[@JGCR59]

I guess the name change is more due to Los Alfaques being the spanish spelling and el alfacs being the Catalan spelling of the place name. In 1978 shortly after Franco's death everything still had to be in spanish while today they reverted back to Catalan place names

[@RFL1976]

OK i'm nitpicking here, but why is the figure of 62M Euro given to what I imagine would be a mainly UK audience about an American incident?

[@raquellofstedt9713]

It was a Spanish incident.

[@RFL1976]

@@raquellofstedt9713 duh, my bad, I was half watching and assumed it was west coast USA, thanks for putting me right

[@raquellofstedt9713]

@@RFL1976 No problemo. Happens. 😉

[@chicagogyrl4846]

Why was the majority of people from other countries??! There wasn’t any Spanish people there??!

[@paulohagan3309]

In those days, not many Spaniards could afford the places that foreign holidaymakers could, even in Spain.. In1979 Spain was still not a very rich country.

[@Htiler]

That truck driver is a total jerk.

[@PSI-qf8bq]

It was more like the company wanted to maximise profit. The driver paid with his life.

[@davidrossi5096]

Thank god I’m American and will never be able to afford to go on a vacation or holiday. RIP to the many victims, poor souls in the prime of their lives.

[@DarknessUnresolved]

Ah,, the blessings of capitalism...

[@maverick4177]

One hell of a BBQ

[@JamesTaylor-n1u]

lol

[@MajorT0m]

10:13 surely a staged scene unless plastic camping furniture and thin 70s synthetic tablecloths are more fire retardent than I previously thought. And are self-cleaning.

[@sadeva6532]

1. The fire didn't burn the entire area, there are several pictures that show nearly untouched or untouched areas next to fully incinerated ones. It looks like there is a path between here which may have prevented the fire from jumping over. 2. As this is an open area, wind direction factors in as well, which could have prevented the fire catching on that table cloth and why there is no soot. 3. Also, if that table cloth is made of cotton, it would not have caught fire quickly (combustion occurs between around 3608 to 4010°C / 6808 to 7528F). At that time yes, there was a lot of synthetic about, but also a lot of natural fiber such as cotton.

[@MajorT0m]

@@sadeva6532Maybe. However the dynamics of all these gases and all that fire rushing round the place... I'm fairly familiar with it and I personally find that table too perfectly set for a photograph. I've also been in photographic circles for 20 years and people move things about and set things up all the time for a perfect shot, down to moving things from one part of a building to another, to get that money shot. You might be right, but I think it's got all the hallmarks of a doctored scene.

[@sthenzel]

I was around nine at the time, and as many fellow Germans were among the dead, it was a fairly large story over here back then, so I still remember some things. One survivor was a canary, he still in his cage, and while he was only a little singed, the family who owned was wiped out, more or less right next to him. Someone took him in and he got a new name - El Fuego (probably the story ran in a magazine like "Spiegel" oder "Stern"). Anyway - fire can do some weird things, like drawing in so much cool air over the ground, that even radiative heat does not instantly ignite things very close to the fire. The camping chairs partially melted, but did not burn. Still I do not rule out someone moved them out of the way to that spot. I don´t think it was a deliberate placement for a photo, as there were enough much more disturbing sights to capture (and back then news did not tend to be ´sanitized´ too much, so the news crews shot pretty much everything, just like some people with their mobiles today).

[@heinzriemann3213]

Flat earth smartness

[@sadeva6532]

@@MajorT0m this is 1978, so no Twitter, no Instagram. These photos were taken on the day according to the time stamps on Getty, etc. With all the carnage around, I doubt someone had to stage anything tbh.

[@williamday9628]

I must confess I had lived in this area for 20 years and had never heard of this disaster, despite visiting Sant Carles de la Ràpita many times! I lived quite near the refinery in Tarragona, where it seems even today safety is pretty lax, it's not unusual to breathe toxic air from this refinery miles away (if the wind is blowing the right way) of horrible burnt rubber/plastic smells. More recently they had another disaster which they got scrutinised for, in which there was an explosion and part of the tank flew some 2km away and landed on a house killing somebody inside. I am not really a chemist so I don't really know the technicalities behind it, but here it is: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Industries_of_Ethylene_Oxide_explosion I don't know if this is the same refinery as the one responsible for the disaster in this video but they are certainly in the same area as there is a massive industrial refinery and chemical complex just outside of Tarragona.