At least nine people were killed in a massive fire that destroyed an apartment complex in Spain’s third largest city, Valencia, the country’s authorities said on Friday (February 23).
A fire fanned by strong winds engulfed the apartment complex in Valencia’s El Campanar district within half an hour on Thursday evening (local time), witnesses said.
Still shaken, one of the surviving residents Jose Carlos Perez, 53, said he grabbed what he could and rushed out of his 12th-floor apartment after seeing smoke outside his window.
“Physically, I have clothes on but inside I am empty because I have nothing left, everything I have is there,” Perez, who lives alone, said as he stood outside the SH Valencia Palace hotel, where more than 100 survivors like him are staying temporarily.
Firefighters with masks and oxygen tanks made their way through the charred building on Friday, searching for bodies or survivors. Valencia Mayor Maria Jose Catala later said there were no more missing people.
On Friday evening, authorities confirmed adjusting the death toll from 10 to 9 in the process of identifying the bodies in the building. Two firefighters were seriously injured and had to be hospitalized. Valencians rushed to donate clothes, medicine… to the surviving residents who lost all their belongings in the fire.
Director of the SH Valencia Palace hotel, Javier Valles, said they were providing temporary shelter for 110 people and a regional official said these people would receive money to cover daily expenses. “People are affected so much… the least we can do is help them,” Valles said.
Visiting the scene on Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said people “lost everything in just a few minutes because of this terrible fire”.
Emergency services said the fire started on the fourth floor of one of the buildings but the cause could not be determined. Dental experts from other parts of Spain traveled to Valencia to help identify the charred bodies, while police collected DNA samples from relatives for the same purpose.
Valencia ordered three days of mourning, canceled soccer matches and suspended the start of the city’s annual month-long “Fallas” festival, which includes the burning of large cardboard statues and Fireworks.