Tornado victim was a father and friend

Israel Espana, a native of Bolivia, was killed in wall collapse at Amazon facility

Friends of Israel Espana gathered Sunday evening in Bristow, Va., mourning his loss. The 37-year-old was one of two men killed Friday after a tornado hit the Amazon fulfillment center on Broening Highway in Southeast Baltimore, collapsing a 50-foot wall.

“We are still in shock,” said Yvonne Aguirre, a friend of Espana’s, reached at his home in Bristow in Prince William County, about 30 miles outside Washington. “We can’t understand why this happened, why this happened to him. He was so young. ... When we received the call we were like, it was a bad dream.”

According to the National Weather Service, the tornado touched down at 9:42 p.m. Friday. It first blew over a tractor trailer on Interstate 95 before moving east and blasting through garage doors at a van-rental facility.

Officials said the storm became most severe as it reached the Amazon building, pulling off part of the roof and steel rafters.

Espana’s body was recovered Saturday morning amid the debris. Officials identified the other victim as Andrew Lindsey, 54.

The deaths were the first tornado-related fatalities in Maryland since 2002.

About 4,000 miles away from his hometown of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Espana started his own trucking company and drove nights and days as a contractor for Amazon. Long hours at work helped pay for a new house in Bristow, where Espana, his wife and three children moved last year.

“They were starting like a new lovely family in this new house,” said Aguirre, who’d known Espana in Bolivia, and then met him again by coincidence in Virginia.

He was a great friend, said Aguirre, adding that she had relied on his and his wife’s support while going through a divorce.

Though Espana worked hard, Aguirre said, he managed to find time to coach his youngest child’s soccer team, and to drive all his kids to their practices and games. He loved soccer, and played at least once or twice a week. Other hobbies included karaoke and grilling in the churrasco style of his homeland.

“You can’t imagine the number of messages that have been posted in support of the family,” said Edgar Pinto, 31, who first met Espana in high school in Bolivia.

Pinto described Espana as a cheerful jokester, sociable even with strangers.

Espana became a U.S. citizen this year, and was planning on making his first trip back to Bolivia in 12 years, he said.

In addition to his wife and three children, Espana is survived by a brother in Maryland, who Aguirre said is devastated by his death. His parents and sister live in Bolivia.