At least 4 deaths and 19 missing in the Campanar fire
Hell broke loose on the streets of Campanar just after half past five on Thursday afternoon as flames completely engilfed a block of two residential towers in Maestro Rodrigo.
Videos of fire and smoke go viral on social networks as the tragedy struck two buildings of 10 and 12 floors, with 137 homes, at the intersection of General Avilés and Maestro Rodrigo avenues in the city.
The drama began to unfold on a seventh-floor balcony. There the first of the flames began to sprout although the cause is still being investigated. In less than half an hour, flames and black smoke had enveloped the two towers, with 450 residents. It was just the beginning of the drama.
As firefighters battled all evening the full horrors of the tragedy began to unfold. At least four people were known to have died in the accident with the very real possibility that there could be many more fatalities, as the Police and Fire Department continue to search for the missing persons. There was already talk of at least 19 missing people. The victims are four residents who were trapped by the devastating fire but these are figures that are still provisional and that could be increased today, on Friday morning.
The flames spread with unusual speed along the façade and a huge column of smoke could be seen from several neighboring towns near the Levantine capital for much of the night.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1760906080698187782
It was after midnight when the deputy director of emergencies confirmed the data, accompanied by the highest regional and local authorities. He confirmed that an emergency department drone had recorded images of four charred bodies on a balcony.
During the extinguishing efforts, firefighters managed to rescue two people who were trapped on a balcony, a man and a woman, while a number of residents of the lower floors saved their lives by jumping onto emergency mattresses placed by firefighters.
The reasons for the fire are still unknown, but it had spread throughout the entire façade in just a few minutes. The first hypotheses indicates that the fire could have spread due to the sprayed polyurethane used in the plates that covered the building.
After receiving the first calls from residents, several fire crews rushed to the scene. Ambulances and police patrols were also mobilized. The force of the flames was so intense that a good part of the area near the damaged building had to be evacuated.
At least six firefighters were injured during the early extinguishing tasks, which were eventually brought under control after midnight showing just the skeleton of the burned-out building although still with several pockets of flames. Given the high temperatures in the building, emergency services had not yet been able to access the interior in the early hours of the morning, as they continued to search for possible victims and evaluate the risk of collapse.
Medical staff assisted 14 people affected by the fire at the scene: nine were men (six of them firefighters), between 25 and 57 years old; four other women between 27 and 81 years old; and there was also a 7 year old boy. Apart from two of the women with just minor injuries, the rest were transferred to different hospitals in the local area.
The force of the wind worked against the firefighters throughout the evening and night, causing the water from the hoses to fall short of the façade. That is why they were concentrating on saving three floors that had not yet been engulfed by the flames.
It is thought that the high flammability of the cladding, apparently covered with polyurethane plates, has been the fuse through which the fire has spread voraciously. Many of the plates even fell off the building and dropped in flames onto the street below, to the panic of witnesses and residents.
The firefighters focused their efforts on accessing the sixth and seventh floors of the building, where a number of residents were trapped. A man and a woman screamed from a balcony. They were trying to cross between balcony’s into a neighboring apartment while the firefighters tried to reach them. Amid cries for help, the couple were finally rescued around eight in the evening.
According to emergency services sources, residents had told the first police officers who arrived at the burning building that most of the residents had left their homes. However, they were not sure of the whereabouts of other neighbors. In total, about 450 people lived in the two devastated apartment towers.
The videos recorded by residents went viral after being spread in WhatsApp groups. In one of the most shared, a firefighter could be seen jumping from a height of approximately 10 meters onto an inflatable mattress deployed by his colleagues. Another video showed the moment of rescue, with a ladder of a truck, of the two people who were trapped on a balcony.
The president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, and the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, both visited the scene of the tragedy, as well as the Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, and several regional councillors.
All of them followed the incident for several hours from an emergency office, set up for the purpose to coordinate the aid tasks.
The Valencia City Council has since declared three days of mourning and announced that on Friday the council will meet urgently to analyze what happened. For now, all the Fallas events scheduled until next Sunday have been suspended, including the Crida and the mascletà.
Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, both followed the events with “great concern”, while showing their “support and confidence in the firefighters and Security Forces working at the site.
Late on Thursday night, the Military Emergency Unit (UME) confirmed that it was sending two battalions to fight the flames and help in subsequent rescue tasks, after receiving a request for help from the Valencian Government. One of them was activated from their base in the municipality of Bétera (Valencia) with fire-fighting equipment, motor pumps and a sanitary device. The other left from Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) with more powerful equipment, in addition to a drone unit; It was scheduled to arrive during the early hours of the morning this Friday.
