Shrine For Dead Teen Untouched As Fire Destroys Field

Story ByAna LacasaSub EditorJoseph GolderAgencyNewsflash

Amazed firefighters have shared this video of the aftermath of a fire which burnt a whole crop field but left a shrine built to remember a 13-year-old girl and the surrounding grass totally untouched.

The scene was captured in a crop field in the town of Armstrong, in the northeastern Argentina province of Santa Fe, after a fire started in an area of pasture which spread to surrounding areas.

In a statement to Newsflash, chief firefighter German Cecchi, 44, said that the fire started on 3rd August, adding: “We went to the scene and started to put out the fire, with the flames coming from the northwestern area inside the crop field, we worked for a long time in order to control it”.

German Cecchi/Newsflash

After the fire was extinguished, Cecchi said that his team of firefighters went to monitor the crop field, adding: “When we finished extinguishing the flames we saw this shrine around which nothing had been burned for about two metres surrounding it.

“It caught our attention and we were very surprised, so I decided to record the video.”

The footage shows the shadow of the chief firefighter as he walks through the burnt fields. He said: “I am not much of a believer but look at this, the field is totally burnt, but then look around the little virgin, nothing.”

German Cecchi/Newsflash

Cecchi, who has worked as a firefighter for 25 years, said that they were told the shrine was made in homage to a 13-year-old girl “who died in 1997 in a spot where many of my workmates have had to attend (traffic) accidents”.

The firefighter said that the fire started on a crossroads next to the fields, adding: “it is very dangerous as there have been multiple traffic accidents at this spot in the past”.

According to the national newspaper Cronica, the shrine was built by a man identified only as Hugo, who was the father of the teenage girl who died in a traffic accident.

Hugo told Cronica: “My daughter was 13 years old when she passed away. I built this shrine with a manger and an angel to remember her.”

German Cecchi/Newsflash

Hugo attributes the happening to God, he said: “There was a huge flame and this space was left free from fire. It is impressive. I am a believer, God cared for my shrine… this shows that God is here”.

Cecchi told Newsflash he has no way of explaining the bizarre event, explaining: “The conditions for it to be burnt were all there, as everything was dry, but the shrine was left untouched and did not even get dirty and that is surprising too.

“There is no explanation for the shrine not burning, I do not know if it was a miracle or not, there is no explanation, there are things that just happen and this happened and it does not have an explanation for me or for anybody”.

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