At 1:00 p.m. on November 7, 1907, locomotive 0-6-0 of The Moctezuma Copper Company had already made two trips to drop off large boxes of dynamite to pillars minelocated about 20 kilometers from the Nacozari city, sonorous.
But just when the train was parked in said city, it was determined that they had to reload more explosives to take them to the mining company. The machinist commissioned for the shipment was Alber Biel, who for unknown reasons fell ill at the last minute, for which reason he would be replaced by the young apprentice jesus garcia.
Somebody messed up on the 0-6-0 locomotive
When Jesús arrived at the station to start the trip, he noticed two serious situations: the first was that some ignoramus placed the more than 40 boxes of dynamite in the car behind the boilers, and the other was that the locomotive’s chimney was lit and damaged, causing embers to reach the dangerous cargo volatile.
After this the most feared scenario occurred. The boxes with dynamite began to catch fire quickly, the wind at that time had helped. Jesús García thought of his fiancée who lived in Nacozari, of his mother who, by the way, asked him not to go to work because of a bad feeling, his nephew, barely 10 days old, also came to mind. .
The hard decision of Jesús García Corona
So when the crew trying to contain the flames that were affecting the dynamite boxes began to run to safety, young Jesus made the decision to start the locomotive to get as far away from him as possible. nacozarithe only one who accompanied him in this feat was the garrotero jose romero.
The machine started up, the plan was that once they were far enough away they would both jump out of it to safety, letting the train continue on its way, but the only one who had time to do so was Romero, while Jesus followed behind. front to ensure that the dynamite was far enough away from the town. He no longer gave her time to jump, numerous and immeasurable noises were heard.
The explosion caused damage up to 10 miles around.
An enormous black cloud rose, iron, carvings, rails, metals, and screws began to fall from the sky, an enormous crater was left in the place of the explosion, but no sign of Jesus García, just a leather boots torn to shreds The shock wave of the dynamite destroyed everything in its path in a radius of 16 kilometers, some eleven people including him died, but the thousands of inhabitants of Nacozari had been saved.
That same night a heavy rain fell in that city that was about to become extinct, hundreds watched over him, a hero was born.
Soon after, Nacozari changed his name to Nacozari de Garciadozens of Mexican towns, as well as parks and streets, began to be renamed as Jesús García or Heroes of Nacozari. Soon after, Jesús García was recognized as a “Hero of Humanity” by the American Royal Cross of Honor, Washington, D.C.. But none of this has prevented her feat from being forgotten.
Do you want to escape to Sonora? discover and plan here an unforgettable experience