The Fire in the Radio Keto Building

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Around 20 people died in the fire. The radio keto building was completely destroyed. When they were questioned, the heads of the radio station denied knowing anything about the content of the show that Leonardo Paez and his colleagues had planned. They claimed it had been put on the air without their knowledge.

On a Saturday night, in February 1949, the music programming on one of the most popular radio stations in Quito, Ecuador, was interrupted with an urgent news bulletin: strange objects in the sky that looked like large disks with bright lights were using a powerful ray to destroy a nearby city. And they were heading right for Quito.

Thanks to Lisette Arévalo for sharing her tape and her reporting. In 2020, she reported this story for the Spanish-language podcast Radio Ambulante – it’s called “The Extraterrestrials.” You can listen at https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/the-extraterrestrials.

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