JPRS ID: 8712 EAST EUROPE REPORT POLITICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS

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JPRS L/8? 12 -
16 October 1979
- East Euro e Re ort
p p
POLITICAI, SOCIOLOGICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS
CFOUO 7/79) ~
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JPRS L/8712 '
16 .OCtober 19 79
EAST EUROPE REPORT ~
POLITICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS ~
(FOUO 7/79 )
~ '
CONTENTS PA~E
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Encyclical of Pope John-Paul II Analyzed
(Jean Laloy; COI~4ENTAIRE, Summer 79) 1 ,
~ ROMANIA
Violations of Fire Regulations Blamed in Store Fire
(Dan Caragheorghe; PENTRU PATRIE, Jun 79) 8
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INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS i
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ENCYCLICAL OF POPE JOHN-PAUL II ANALYZED ~
Paris COMMENTAIRE in French Su~er 79 pp 250-254 ~
~ [~'lrticle by Jean Laloy] .
[Text] The encyclical letter of John-Pau1.II has been
well received. Many simply have confidence in a man who,
with his first words spoken in St. Peter Square the night
of his election, greatly moved the throngs. His words--
and in dny event his intentions--meet with approval. But,
precisely what has he said?
Those who have read it* are divided into at least twe camps. One rejoices at
its teachings on social justice and the rights of man. The other attachs
greater worth to the statements, if not the admonitions, on the subjects of
doctrine and morality. What is important is the connection between the two--
- the knot. The encyclical tends to take in both extremes completely and define ,
. their relationship. ~
The letter is encyclical, not only with respect to its audience, but in its
composition. Starting with the reforms effected since the [Ecumenical] Coun-
cil, it delves into the mystery of man fashioned by God, reverts to tnan in the
present-day world, and concludes with the church, the community of friends of ,
God, whose presence extends beyond its visible limits. . ~
When this text, concise in style and at times difficult, is considered in the
wake of speeches and utterances which had been heard tor 6 months, it can be
believed that the pope is seeking to answer the questions constantly directed ~
at him--what have you to tell us? What have you to say that we have not
already heard? We are repeatedly told it is better to be good than bad, to
~ help each other rather than to kill each other, but we have the impression
that nobody really believes that. And you? _
*Encyclical "Redemptor Hominis" (R.H.), text published by LA DOCUMENTATION
CATHOLIQUE, No 7, 1 April 1979.. pp 301-323
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Before speaking of what must be done, the pope responds: let me tell you what j
there is. "Man cannot live without love "(R.H.II, 10). God, for whom your ~
heart yearns, has come to you. Turn towards Him and you will know what has ;
to be done. Now we have come to that, of which I shall give evidence. ~
~
Let us leave to the more authoritative the task of commenting upon the ency- ~
clical's theology. If we did speak of it we would cite the constant fidelity
to Paul VI which is reaffirmed (and, with less emphasis, to John XXIII) as well ~
as to the two texts of the Ecumenical Council, "C;sdium et Spes" on the church . i
and the world, and "Lumen Gent~.um" on the church (particularly the latter). '
We would find t~hat the letter places at rhe center of everything the mystery ~
of a God assuming the form of a man in order to save all men, and then re- i
maining among them in order to associate them with him in his work. The '
phrases are clear and well drafted, borrowing nothing from contemporary ide-
ologies; they affirm the transcendence of God, the "worthlessness" of worldly !
things; they are frequently accompanied by appeals or admonitions to theo- j
logians (III, 19), to husbands, to priests, to catechists (III, 21), to '
- critical (I, 4) or retrograde (I, 61 spirits)~, and to some others. "Classical" .
theology? "A catch-all?" "Nothing very new." Such was the opinion of a LE '
MONDE editorial (16 March 1979). Perhaps it was written a little too quickly. ~
~
When the great truths are placed in relation to the status of inen today, they ;
in fact make apparent.the originality of what is hidden under the affirmation ~
(less banal than it seems) of the actual existence of God the Creator and i
Savior, the "friend of man." i
What does the pope who comes from Cracow say about this world? Does he anathe- ~
matize communism? Does he reject exploitative liberalism? Does he counsel ~
everyone to discharge honestly his duty to the state, mindful of his moral ~
I
obligations to his neighbor? He presents matters in different fashion.
Here we have come to the very heart of the letter. The pope has taken pains
to say it. "I would like to combine the church's mission and service to
mankind," he explained in a short speech* on 11 March, "in its impenetrable
mystery in the same way that I see and feel the relation between the mystery
of redemption through Jesus Christ and the dignity of.man. There I see the
central task of my univeraal ministry." I
The relations between the church and man--"4 billion people"--John Paul II ~
unites under the somewhat surprising term "road," which is found to be re- j
peated almost 20 times in the third section of his letter: "Christ along
everyone's road," "All the roads of the church lead to man," and "Man is the
church's road." It seems that in this imagery, coming from the Gospel, are ~
several meanings. ~ ;
The road, that is, the road to salvation, the movement which impels man, I
individually or collectively, towards truth is at first a matter of faith, ~
,
*LA DOCUMENTATION CATHOLIQUE, No 7, 1 April 1979, p 326 , ~
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and one day a matter of vision. In this sense "Jesus is the road of the ;
church" and each one follows its road to Him. The road as leading to the goal. ~
But the road can also be the oblibatory pa~sage to redemption. The road as ;
a means. In this sense "Man is the road of the church." Let us listen: the '
church is responsible for all men--"every man with no exception"--it cannot
- be without limits of space or time. Its mission?" "Its road which immutably ,
passes through the mystery of Incarnation anci Redemption." Not only does the '
church proclaim these mysteries, but it lives them, and the more they are '
rooted in human reality ("individual...family...societies...nations...people... ;
humanity"), and the more the latter deepens, opens out and changes, the more ;
these mysteries are charged with meaning, reveal their force. Thus the church ~
is tied to men, affected by their history (not to mention their various i
stories); i.*_ is also able, but indirectly and as an added benefit, to help
them in discovering how to orient their temporal activities. It will be
attentive to the "possibilities" which are provided, to the "threats" which ~
are in the making, and last, to all which "seems contrary to the effort always ~
to make human life more humane."
Thus posed is the possibility of progress, not without misteps, stumbles, and
falls, but becoming deeper and turning inward, spiritual but unseen progress. ~
From such progress another kind can arise; the establishment of more just and
stable relationships among human groups, tempo~ral progress, the "structure
of the world" discussed in the document "Gandium et Spes." But the [Ecumen-
ical] Council then sometimes seemed inclined to c: ?~ribe modern man in opti-
mistic terms as "m~iching toward more complete development of his personality,
toward a constantly increasing assertion of his rights."* John-Paul II,
15 years later, in particular finds there are contradictions in "progress."
He sees contemporary man frightened ~y what he has made, that is, by the
products of his hands and even more, of his intelligence, and trends of his
desires." (III, 15).
Man now has the means to destroy all humankind, he can annihilate the natural ~
environment in which he lives, and above all he can suffocate moral progress
and promote "the trend to exploiting all material, technical, and productive
progress for the sole purpose of dominating others." (III, 15). The encyclical~
thus affirms the contradiction in the historical movement, a concept appearing
in the parable of the wheat and the tares developed by St Augustine in "The
Citadel of God," which has been forgotten or distorted in modern times, denied
by contemporary ideologies, and rediscovered and thoroughly discussed, es-
peciaZly in France, in several currents of philosophical and theological
thought since the beginning of the century.** This concept of rontrasting
*Vatican II Ecumenical Council, "L'Eglise~dans le monde" (The Church and the
World), Paris, Ed. du Centurion,1966, Chapter IV, Section 41, paragraph 1,
p 111
**In particular, see Jacques Maritain, "Pour une philosopie de 1'histoire"
(A Philosophy of History), Paris, Seuil, 1959; Henry Marrou, "Theologie de
1'histoire" (The Theology of History), Paris,Seuil, 1968 ,
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two=Eold progress,in a good direction along with a bad one, of progress as ,
tension between two poles which are unattainable but real, is that which
aris~~s from the c:ollective experience of our centu~y. It destroys the batiis '
of every political fanaticism: there is no perfect Citadel! In a society ;
of satiety, the society where nobody is starving. There is another side of '
the coin. The society wherein complete equality is achieved transforms into j
a society of inertia. And so forth. I
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Must we indeed be satisfied with a replete city? Reduce temporal history to .
a blind struggle for arms more or less high but always limited? The answer ~
is that there does exist the possibility of progress but mainly accomplished i
above the historical movement, most of the time without men's knowledge. ,
Temporal progress is not a straight-line movement but at best a saw-toothed i
line. The horizontal movement, forward, leads into a vertical movement, the
upward, to the end. The space uf history has two, if not three, dimensions.
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Of this idea--"progress or threat"--progress which becomes a threat, a threat
which can give birth to progres~, the Pope gives two applications. !
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The first concerns that dramatic effect of progress which is accentuation of i
the inequality between rich and poor nations. Citing the parable of Lazarus I
and the wicked rich man*.azid further,the scene from the Last Judgment** ("I
was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat....") .John-Paul II forcefully re- i,
turns to the themes which he had expounded in Mexico. He explains that, even ~
though "the mechanisms and structures are in question" solutions are neverthe- ?
less possible, of which he sketched some outlines, emphasizing the nece~sity I
for compromise, harmony between economic "competition" and the "redistribution" j
of wealth and between "planning" and "liberty." (III, 16), and speaking out ~ I
against the amounts swallowed up in the arms trade.
Father Cosmao, the successor to Father Lebret, sees in this part "the heart
of this encyclical." ~ am not of that opinion, far two reas~ns. The first
is that the pope, in the encyclical, as in his speeches, seems to expect a
slow evolution marked by numerous episodes during which different types of
progress or of regression may appear. The second is that, according to . ~
Father Cosmao,"man develops upon the earth...and it is in so developing...
that he travels toward God." I do not believe that this presentation is ~
that of John-Paul II, no more than the idea of "collective self-creation I
of man" proposed farther on. Both neglect the contradictions of progress and ~
the presence of the bad in history, and run the danger of ending up in myths I
very different from the views presented in the encyclical. The pope obviously
is not comfortable with the present situation. Between that and "self-creation ~
of man" there is a distance.
On the otner hand, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is hailed as
genuine progress, but still far from having produced the desired effects.
*Luke, 16, 19-31 ~ , I
**Matthew, 25, 31-46 ' i
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~ Along with such progress there is in f~ct found to be a growth of "great
totalitarianisms," the acceptance of the "letter" of the law contrary to ;
their "spirit," the existence of "authority imposed by a given group upon
all other members of a society," and the denial of "religious freedom" which i
is a"fundamental right," and in consequence of these abuses, the danger of
war since "in the final analysis peace narrows down to respect for the in- '
- violable rights of man--opus justitiae pax--whereas war is born of violation
of those ribhts and entrains still more senous violations of them" (III, 16- ;
17). Here one finds an echo of the experiences of the archbishop of Cracow. ,
About communism, about riarxism not a word is said. But trie basic rights, the
fundamental ri hts are claimed as indis ensable to civil !
$ p peace, to peace among
nations, and to religious peace. "The principle of humaa rights deeply affects ~
the sector of social justice and becomes the measure by which it may be i
verified in the life of polit~cal organizations."
_ What indeed is this new Advent about which John Paul II writes in the beginning
of his letter? It is the discovery that the temporal world, as rich and as
diversified as it may bey with its innovations and extraordi~.ary changes, is ~
� dependent upon something more than,itself. As soon as that~is recognized, or ,
simply felt, or still more modestly, not denied, the "dignity of ma;1 is es- ~
tablished. The more the church centers upon the mystery of its origin and its
' final purpose, the more it serves humanity in its temporal status, the more
i.t opens to it the "roads" which lead somewhere, and not to nothing but empti-
ness.
The new Advent is the end of the age of ideolog~.es and the possibility of
another age tahich will also include light and dark, but differently structured.
This age to come may perhaps learn some lessons from contemporary catastrophies.
The 20th century was to establish, definitively, individual freedom, social
justi~~; the light of reason, and universal tolerance. To a certain extent
it has done so. There is more of all that in our societies than formerly.
But there is also more of something else which has grown at the same~time--the
tares with ttte wheat. Faced with, or under the weight of, that something else,
men are turning away from tirelessly rehashed political speeches; they seek
where they can, below, to the side, forward, and above. It is to help them
see, according to John-Paul II, that the church must be itself in the fullest
sense of the terms.
- "To transcends the bounds of temporality and at the same time it thinks so-
licitously of everything which, within. the dimensions of that temporality,
_ has repercussions on the life of man, on the life of the human spirit... search
, for the truth. Insatiable need for the gaod, hunger for liberty, yearning
for beauty, voice of conscience.... (IV, 18). _
*[reference point not indicated in source text] "Le Redempteur de 1'homme.
Lettre encyclique de Jean-Paul II; un guide de lecture" (The Redeemer of
Man. A guide to reading the encyclical letter of John-Paul II.) by V. Cosmao,.
Paris, Ed, du Cerf, 1979. p 21 _
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Again we see the three themes of the Peublo speech: in the�first place, serving
the truth, which makes unity possible and establishes the dignity of man.
Otherwise, the world goes drifting in accordance with Vladimir Soloviev's _
max~m: "Since we are all descended from apes, should we therefore love each
~ other?" ,
The encyclical's maxim is different. "Since we come from elsewhere and are
going elsewhere, let us try as best we can to grasp what we can do." This i
maxim responds to the wait for a new era, in which temporal activity, freed ~
from the sacral and the absolute, would nevertheless retain a stability of ~
its own, sc the same time very important and of no importance at all. Very ~
important, because linked to permanent values, of which everyone sees what he
cannot do without, and of very little importance because of impermanence. r j
Never truly successf ul, always realizing only approximations and approaches ` i
to a certain degree of justice, peace, equality, and liberty and not total j
justice, nor total peace, nor anything totally certain.
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From this viewpoint it is astonishing that the pope nowhere mentions the ~
necessity to limit the "absolute sovereignty" of states in order to move ~
several steps forward toward the possibility, if not of peace, at least of i
pacification. It is true that such limitations upon sovereignty are implicitly
contained in the chapter concerning human rights. It is also true that he i
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could not discuss everything.
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If "Redemptor Hominis" is compared with "Ecclesiam Suam," the first encyclical !
of Paul VI, published on 11 August 1964, similarities and differences can be
seen. The spirit is the same, overtures and dialogue with Paul VI, a presence ~
and concern with John-Paul II, but one is gentler and more serene,the other , ;
- has more sharp edges, more fire. Both, in relation to the world, are ex- j
tremely novel. It is no longer a question of th2 church's leading or reigning ~
in the old sense. It is a matter of being there, of radiating less by direc-
tives than by presence, of letting the light pass through.
, This new type of relationship between the church and t~:e world makes more de-
mands upon both: the church, purer and more transparent, but alse more vulner-
able, with fewer defenses; the world, more upon and less pretentious, but also
more aware and less assured. It is not an easy relationship. ~
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That is why I do not share the anxieties of Paul Thibaud who, in ESPRIT, fears ~
. that the encyclical, despite the good features he finds in it, defines a !
"spiritual authority above the political" and leads to "ecclesiastical inter- ~
ventionism,"* It seems to me that John-Paul II rather sees himself as a man ~
certainly charged with looking to the future, but first and above all charged '
with letting pass a light which does not come from him. He puts himself at ~
the intersection of the vertical and the horizontal. This is the way that I
- he~understands the church's mission and service to man. That is why, with ~
respect to the world, he limits himself to outline directioas in the area of
rights as in that of inequality and that of the struggle against misery. He i
does not dictate. He points out landmarks, he indicates several methods. '
I._
*"Venu de la dissidence" (~rowth of Dissidence) by P.Thibaud, ESPRIT, April r2'
1979, pp 3-10 6
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At the same time, on the basis of his past life, he belongs to that cat~~ory
of inen who have gon~ through the experience, and failure, of modern Promei-
= teanism, wt~o know that it is necessary to seek elsewhere. Maintaining that
tie has unique and universal responsibilities, he has no need to reationalize, ~
to grol~e in order to find the way. It is obvious, open to all to see. But ~
tl~e ma4ses do not get it. Then, he says what there is to be said.
And his words hit the mark. Already there are responses. They come even fiom
Poland. For example, Adam Michnik, in i.he name of th~ "lay left":
"Religious freedom is the most visible sign of the actual practice of civil -
rights. The attack of authority against that freedom is always symptomatic
of the totalitarianization of intellectual lif.e. There is no exception to
that rule because totalitarian authority is the only one unable to accept the
exhortation of St Peter and the apostles: 'God must be obeyed rather than men.'
(Acts 5,29). In the language of the lay left this means that men, because
of his human nature, has rights which no authority is justified in nulli-
fying..."*
Michnik thus echoes Boukharine who, in a ccnversation with Boris Nikclaievski
in Paris, March 1936, did not deny that the "ten commandment5 of Moses" were
the basis of all humanism.*~ He also echoes Benjamin Constant, who wrote, in
, 1815: "The whole of citizens is sovereign.;.. It does not follow that the
whole of citizens, or those invested by it with sovereignty, can sovereignty
do away with individual liberties... The assent of a majority in no w~:�;~
- suffices to legitimize its actions in all cases: there exist those ~liat ,
nothing can justify...."
~
Thus appear signs, very different from those which so many French Catholics
thought they were able to read in the way of the world. To be counted among
these signs is the letter of John-Paul II, whose basic line is that it pays
particular attention to the "mission of the church and service to man" in
order better to unite them in inspiration without ever confounding them in
application.
COPYRIGHT 1979: S.A. Commentaire -
11,706
CSO: 3100
*A.Michnik, "L'Eglise et la gauche, le dialogue polonais" (The Church and the~
Left; Polish Dialogues), Paris, Seuil, 197R, p 170
**"Boukharine et 1'opposition a Staline" (Boukharine and the Opposition to
Stalin) in "Sotsialistitcheskit Vestnik," Collection No 4, New York, 1965,
pp 93-94
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VIOLATI4NS OF FIRE R~GULATIONS BLAMED IN STORE FIRE
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Bucharest PI~NTRU PATRIE in Roinanian No 6~ aun 79 ~ 2a2i
/-Article by Dan Caragheorghe: '~A Spax'k Sets Fire to a Store and ~Illumir~ates' ~
Gross Negligence"~ I
f that broke out f
~ext] The neytepapers, radio arxi TV promptly reported the ire
~n t.~ie well-known Bucharest store Victoria. Thanks to intensive and efficient ~
measures~ the fire was put out onlyr 50 minutes after it st~arted~ as the military
firemen took steps to rescue the people in danger, to check the spread of t~he
fire and ~rut out the existing centers, and 'to protect the merchandise not en-
gul.fed by the flames. As a matter of fact, a fire of auch proport~i.ona in such
a buildi.ng and result3.ng in sma71 material lo~ses compared to ~hat was in the �
store (There xere also three vic'tims) is a wsi.que phenaanenon in the technical
literature. In Vienr~a, Brussels or Tokyo~ to c~te only a fe~ examples, the .
fires that broke out in big modern stores resulted in almost co~nplete dtatruc-
tion of the buildings and victims that bereaved hundreds and hundreds of familiea.
We repeat rsi~c7, the fact that thia tragedy could have been avoided is a thing
to be remem~beTed and ~ppreciated as such. But the causes of it are all the more
reprehensible, because the fire in the Victoria~ atore was the end i~esult of a ,
whole "chain of wealrnesses~" a drop that filled the glass. It ~ras irresponsibil- ~
ity and iridj.fference to elementary, ~re repeat elementary~ observance of the re- .
gulations in force to prevent and extinguish fires.
Let us begin with 28 September 1978, ~e ~e complement and functiona of the
techrri.cal co~nmission for psi ~reventing and extinguishing fires7 were deternrLned
by Deciaion No 132 issued by'~he director of the oictoria 3tate
Trade F~terpriae~
- with Virgil Dumitriu~ then deputy director~ as chairms~n and Ion Popescu~ chief�of
the administra~tive bureau, as secretary. The formation of this commi.ssion was to
lead~ naturally~ to improvement of prevent3.ve actirrity and adoption of effici~t
measures.
By the same decision~ every salesman, cashier~ manager etc. was to be spec3fi.cal-
ly inst~ructed in his fire prevention duties at his post, all the regulation pre-
ventive arri f`i.re-fi~ting equipanent ~ras to be promptly provided, aixl the equip-
meilt Was to be kept in perfect operat3.ng corxii.tion. ~
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Tnlere these recommendations carried out? Let us see.
In February 1979 some officers of the ~.ranen~s Comnand made a preventive check
of the big stores in Bucharest (Bucur-Obor, Unirea, Bucurest~., Cocor and Vic-
toria). What did they find? We find the answer in the survey nGoing Through
Some ~ade Units in the Capital~' published in the 3ournal PAZA CONT`RA INCF~NDI- �
- IIAR for March. We quote: 't... controls are still superficial at the Victoria
store (con~rols of the above-mentioned technical commission for psi of the store
our note)... The or~arri.zed efforts toward guidance, control and periodic ana-
l,~sis of preventive and fire-fighting activity are insignificant and of poor
quality,.. The managers of the store have not taken the proper measures to
elimi.nate situations threatening the protection of t~he great material val.ues in
storage or in sales areas from fires... Maintenance materials and protective
equipment to the value of more than 1 million lei were illega~ly stored in the
ventilation station on the seventh floor of the Victoria store... The conrLec-
tions to the marking rooms rcase de marcat~ axe not protected from bloxs... In-
adequately instructed personnel on some 3obs confused t~he nex type of po~rder and
carbon dioxi.de extinguj.shers with the chemical foam ones... The samplings made
showed tkiat only 50 percent of the personne~ kneW where the evacuation routes
are... The safety lighting has been out of order for over 2 years" etc. (At
the time of this check, steps were ta.ken to eliminate some defects at once, to
replace some emergency repairs, and to clear the paths to hydrants and to emer-
gency equipment etc,, and the other defects were tc~ be remedied as soon as pos-
sible.)
All these findings were reported to the competent ministry on 22 Maxch 1979. We
make special mention, and you will see why, of the following finding: "At the
Victoria store sections of combustible materials were used to partition the ele-
vator ~ge in the perform~nce of welding operations with no surveillance on
the floors, ma~d.ng it possible for ar~y fire to beak out and spread both to the
sales areas and to the evacuation routes.� Shortly after the above-mention~ed
check, a comir~i.ssion of e~erts from the Ministry of Domestic Trade went to the
Victoria store and found these reports were true. On th3.~ occa.sion the store
ma.nagement assured them that every effort would be made to remedy the defects
as soon as possible. The Weldir.g operations were merely suspended.
But on 9 April the welding_ w~ork on lift No was resumed. The responsible ele-
ments at Victoria lCS ~`State Trade Enterprise~ gave the fitter Nicolae Anton,
from the Ascensorul Maintenance and Repairs ~`nterprise, a Mpermit to work with
fire," authorizing him to do this work. But let us consider ~r~,is premit, or ra-
ther this so-called permit. Article 315 of '~Regulations for Preeenting and _
Fighting Fires� issued by the Ministry of Domestic Trade says, "Welding operati-
ons where there is danger of fires or explosions will be peY�formed solely xLth
a fire permit speci~ing the natnre and duration of the operationa~ the persons
authoriaed to perform them, the measures to be taken to prevent and extinguish
fires~ the ~ocation di the ~ob, their obligation to remove or protect inflammable
materials in the vicinity, extin~gui.shing equipment, the obligation to instruct
the workers~ the obligatory ct-ieck upon completing the operations, and designa-
tion of the persons responsible for taking these measures...~~ How did Nicolae
Anton~s permit look? Everything was a11 right up to the heading ~~Measures,"
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which as we have seen clearly specified what was to be done from start to finish
~ to prevent ar~y risk of fire.
_ But none of these points was covered by the permit iasued to Nicdlae Anton. What
riEht dtd those who iasued this document have to abridge ita content by excluding
' a series of provisione absolutely indispensable to the complete security of the
place of work and of the person xho performed the operation? Apparently they
, considered these provisions to be in the nature of things and so well knoWn that
there would be no point in mentioning the~n. But let us see ~ho they are.
And so who signed the so-called "permit~~? The worlanan, Nicolae Anton, arid
then the service fireman Nlihai Gheorghe and the chief of the administrata.ve bu-
reau, Iori Popescu, secretary of the technical comnd.asion for psi at the Victoria
IC3. At the entry ~~unit chiefn the space was blank (another legal violat,ionl),
to say nothing o.f the fact that accordi.ng to Supplement 5 of the Regul.ations
this permit should have been approved in the first place by the chairman of the
tec:~nical com~d.ssion for psi. The respective chairman~ in our case~ did not
even know about the welding that w~s being done at Victorial
Let us consider 13ico7~e Anton for a moment. As we said~ his main trade ia that
of a fitter. Therefore he is not a welder. Tr~at he could do was to set some
welding poin~;s~ or ~~~tfturi" 7 as they say in the trade. The work being done
on the day of the fire, resistance welding on slide brackets, would have required
the intervention of a c~ualified man and certainly not Nicolae Anton the fitter. -
Neverthe;tess Gheorg~e Covacu, a tearn leader at Ascensorul and a work coox~dinator
at the Victoria lCS, and Nicoiae Vlasceanu~ a foreman at Ascensorul and Anton~s -
boss, entrusted the operation to Anton instead of stopping him from doing it, to
say nothing of the fact that when they gave him the ~ob they did not bother to
give him the minimum knoWledge of f~ire prevention measures i*i such cases. Out-
s~ de of the fact tha.~c he had a'~permit to work with fire" (And we lrnox wha~ kind ~
of a peimitl)~ Anton was a complete stranger to the most element.ary atandards of
fire prevention. To be .~ure claus~ 13 of the contract between the Dictoria lCS
as beneficiary and the Ascensorul. Enterprise stipulated that the beneficiary~ the
Victoria lCS~ was responsible for psi. But the fact remains that the responsible
elements at Ascensorul. should hace given the personnel under them a real briefing
on psi, and as we have seen they did not do so. (In the concluaions of the inves-
tigation made after the disaster it is mention~ed that after the fire some techni-
cal personnel at Ascensorul falsified the fitter Nicolae Anton~s individual bri.ef-
ing card, adding corrections concerr~ing a so-called briefing on obaervance of the
psi reg~il.ations, whi ch briefing was actually not given.)
On 10 April Nicolae Anton continued to perform the ~ob of 9 April. NoW~ instead
of the '~permit tu work with fire~~ that he should have had for that day, he had
only a copy of the one for 9 April. On the upper right of this capy the servj.ce
fireman Gheorghe Mihai (You read it~ the service firemanl) illegally wrote the
dai,a of 10 April 1979! qnd thus acovered,~ Nicolae Anton went to work.
The heat flow produced by the electric arc p.ves off a temperature of 3,500-l~~000
degrees, hi~ enough to melt the material to be xelded. But the latter is e~ec-
ted into the surrounding space in the form of sparks, which have a hi~ thermal
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capacity to ignite tt.;~ nearby materials and substv~,nces. And ;cince there was a
_ storeroar? for the men~s haberdashery section near Anton~s plac:e of work (aleva-
tor No on the third floor), which storeroom was separated fram the elevator
shaft solely by a plywood wall with no fireproofing, and since highly inflaimma-
b1e ~oods tha,t burn rapidly and extensively were shelved, in t~his storeroom...
The experts who investigated the causes of this fire found them in the serioue
violations of the psi regul.ations, the disorder and indiscipline evidenced in
this are~, and the inexcusable laxity of some managers and executivea, particu-
larly at the Victoria lCS but also at the Ascensorul Enterprise.
And in ttzis whole cycle of viol.ations of_ the le~al standards and in the midst
of the neg3.igence and indolence of p~~~ple who sho.:ld have protected the store
from the risk of fire, one spark xas enou~n. In fact the inquiry revealed a
certain dangerous attitude i~i ;;~3 respect. The responsible elements considered
the plan tasks to be of first importance, relied upon the coanmon sense and co:c~--
rect corxiuct of their people~ and did not "bother" them flirther w1.th the mea~ures
to protect people~s ].ives and the merchandise in the store fran fires.
We were in the Victoria store with a psi. inepector after i t reopened. The mea-
sr,res that have been taken evidence a real concern that the unit shall no longer
be threatened by fire and that the anploy~ees~ customers and gooda shall be quite
safe. The reporter mentioned that he sti11 meets res~onsible elements~ directors
of enterprises or institutions, ~ho are "~burdened~~ by the fire-prevent~ion mea- ~
sures rec~uired by law. That is why he resolved to present thie accident of the
Victoria store to the readers, since it proves the exi.stence of such attitudes
`and their consequences as we]1.
;1.86
cso: 270o j
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