Four dead and 19 missing leaves fire in two buildings in Valencia

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A devastating and devastating fire in a fourteen-story residential building in Valencia (eastern Spain), which has spread to another annex, has caused this Thursday four dead and a search for another nineteen people who are missing and whose relatives have not been able to locate since the fire started.

The incident began around five thirty in the afternoon on Thursday, in a building that was completed in 2009 on the corner of General Avilés and Maestro Rodrigo streets, an area of ​​newly built homes in a neighborhood, that of New bell towerwith large avenues and commercial and leisure areas, to the northwest of the city.

At the moment the origin of the fire is unknown, although firefighters point out that it started on the fifth floor and spread quickly to the upper floors; in just half an hour practically the whole building was on fire or immersed in dense smoke.

The fire, also fueled by strong gusts of west (warm) wind of up to 60 km/h, spread quickly to the annex building, which is part of the same block of 138 homes, with commercial areas on the ground floor.

During the first hours there was only official evidence of injured people, specifically 14, of which 6 are firefighters and the rest civilians, and they are being treated in different hospitals in the city, according to health sources.

Specifically, there are 9 men between 25 and 57 years old, 4 women between 27 and 81 years old, and a minor under 7 years old; With the exception of two women who have been discharged “on site”, the rest have been transferred to different hospital centers in Valencia.

In addition, the firefighters have managed rescue a young couple who had been left on a balconysurrounded by flames, and who have managed to be helped by a crane to go down to the street amid the general applause of the hundreds of people who have gathered in the vicinity and which has forced the police forces to expand the security perimeter.

Finding of four dead

At midnight, the deputy director general of Emergencies, Jorge Suárez, confirmed the discovery of four dead people inside the burned buildings.

The work of the firefighters is focused this morning on continuing to cool the facades of the buildings, which continue to burn without control and causing rubble to fall onto the sidewalks, so until now it has not been possible to access the interior of the buildings and no It is hoped that it can be done until daylight.

The Military Emergency Unit (UME) was mobilized at 7:25 p.m. this Thursday at the request of the Generalitat (regional government) to collaborate in necessary rescues and extinction tasks.

The City Council will decree this Friday three days of official mourning for this incident, according to Catalá, after it is approved by the Board of Spokespersons.

In the adjacent streets and avenues, taken over by police, health and emergency means, and while it begins to drizzle, only a few journalists are gathered, since all the residents of the burned-out properties have been relocated and, in addition, have been helped by the neighborhood with clothes, blankets, food and medicine in a great wave of solidarity.

Witnesses to the fire have told EFE that the flames have ignited “very quickly” in a very short time and “a brutal cloud of smoke has formed, it has practically become night.”

The fire of this building ventilated façade and polyurethane coating is going to create “a before and after” in Spain, where until now no similar incident had occurred, although there have been events in London or China a few years ago, the deputy secretary of the College of Industrial Technical Engineers told EFE. from València (Cogitival) and expert in accident-fire assessment, Esther Puchades.

According to Puchades, the use of polyurethane is not prohibited in construction, but given the virulence of this fire, its use could be reconsidered.

Messages of solidarity with Valencia have been numerous on social networks. The king and queen have expressed that they are following the evolution of the fire with concern and have conveyed their best wishes to the injured, while the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has shown his dismay at the event and has offered Mazón and Catalá “all the help that is necessary.”

Likewise, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has expressed his “support and confidence” in the firefighters, in the State Security Corps and “in each of the professionals who are joining in to help.”