at least four dead in apartment building fire in Valencia

The terrible toll began to fall in the evening. At least four people died in a fire on Thursday, February 22, in a residential building in Valencia in southeastern Spain, Jorge Suarez Torres, deputy director of emergencies for the Valencia region, told the press. . Asked about the missing people, he said “working with families” to confirm if this was the case.

According to a source within the municipality interviewed by Agence France-Presse (AFP) and who requested anonymity, nineteen people are missing. This source did not specify whether these were individuals believed to be inside the building or simply people whose families have not heard from them.

Emergency services said earlier that fourteen people were treated for varying degrees of injuries, including a 7-year-old child, and twelve of them were transferred to hospitals in Spain’s third city. Six are firefighters, “which highlights the intensity of the work they are doing”, said Jorge Suarez Torres, while firefighters had not yet put out the flames around 11 p.m. The strong wind blowing Thursday in Valencia made their work more difficult, according to the authorities.

The spectacular fire broke out around 5:30 p.m. on the fourth of the fourteen floors of this building in the El Campanar district, before spreading at high speed to the other floors through the facade. None of the 138 apartments in the building appear to have been spared by the flames.

According to Spanish media, the location of the bodies was made possible by drones, and Mr. Suarez explained that firefighters could only work outside the building.

A polyurethane coating potentially involved

Twenty-two teams of firefighters were sent to the site to try to put out the flames, rescuers said on X. Eight medical units were also on the scene of the disaster, where a field hospital was set up.

Questioned by Spanish television, the owner of a flower shop located near the building assured that this building had been built at most fourteen years ago and that the hundred apartments it housed were currently occupied. Another resident explained on the same channel that the building had caught fire ” in a few minutes “. “It’s as if he was made of straw”he said. “I didn’t believe what I saw. The wind was blowing enormously and the fire was spreading at an impressive speed.he added.

Speaking on regional television A Punt, Esther Puchades, number two of the regional association of industrial engineers (COGITI), questioned the presence on the facade of a polyurethane coating, which is very flammable. In June 2017, Grenfell Tower in London caught fire like a torch, with the flames spreading at high speed due to the cladding placed on the facade. 72 people were killed.

“Dismay” and “solidarity”

“We ask residents of other areas of the city not to approach the fire to facilitate the work of the mobilized rescue teams”wrote on the maire of Valence, Maria José Catala.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said he “dismayed by the terrible fire in a building in Valencia”, on the social network. The socialist leader announced that he had offered local authorities “all the help needed” de parte de l’Etat et transmitted sa “solidarity with all those affected”.

In a tweetthe Spanish royal palace announced follow ” with worry “ the evolution of the fire and provided support to the emergency services.

The country was recently marked by a dramatic fire which killed thirteen people in early October in a nightclub in Murcia (South-East).