by Antoine Demaison and Marco Trujillo
VALENCIA, Spain (Reuters) – At least nine people died in a fire at an apartment building in Valencia, eastern Spain, on Thursday evening, local authorities said on Friday.
Witnesses reported that the fire, fanned by strong winds, spread throughout the building in just half an hour.
The fire broke out on the fourth floor of the building located in an affluent area of Spain’s third city and spread to other apartments, emergency services said on X.
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Authorities revised the number of deaths from ten to nine in the evening after the body identification process.
Valencia Mayor Maria Jose Catala said earlier in the day that there were no more missing people. Two firefighters were seriously injured and hospitalized.
One of the residents, Jose Carlos Perez, 53, told Reuters he grabbed what he could and rushed out of his 12th-floor apartment after seeing smoke outside his window.
An investigation was opened to determine the causes of the fire.
Valencia residents flocked to donate clothes, medicine and toys to surviving residents who lost all their belongings in the fire.
The President of the Government Pedro Sanchez visited the scene.
The building had 14 floors and 138 apartments, according to the daily El Pais.
The majority of victims found refuge with relatives while 110 of them are staying in the SH Valencia Palace hotel.
“People have been very affected (…) the least we can do is help them,” said the director of the establishment, Javier Valles.
According to Esther Punchades, representative of the insurance inspection agency APCAS, cited by the public channel TVE, the absence of a firewall and the use of a plastic material, polyurethane, on the facade would have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.
In a video broadcast in 2007, the developer of the building praised the innovative material used for the exterior of the building, ensuring that it had passed “rigorous quality controls”.
(Reporting Antoine Demaison, Marco Trujillo, Eva Manez and Emma Pinedo; written by David Latona and Charlie Devereux; French version Dagmarah Mackos, Jean-Stéphane Brosse and Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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