Voces del Prado

Electricity During the Night

Juan Manuel Gómez Agredano, Service Technician for Electricity and Air Conditioning (Electrician), 1972-What's on

When you’re on call as an electrician, given that you are the only maintenance staff available, you always have to double up as a carpenter, a plumber, a fireman, a bit of everything. I recall the day when the Casón del Buen Retiro was flooded. The offices were there, when the building was still used to exhibit the 19th century paintings; it still housed those works. And they called us during the night because water was coming down. The heating on the third floor, in the offices, had broken, and water was flooding down the walls to the lower floors. We had to get to the Casón, cut the water and take down the pictures that were hung there so that they weren’t affected by the leak. That’s what you have to do when you’re on call. It’s not your specialised area, but you don’t have any other choice. You have to cut the electricity and try to minimise the damage that might occur.