February 22, 2024 – 10:41 pm
Photography: Eva Manez – Reuters
Firefighters have been battling the flames since late afternoon in the Campanar neighborhood of Valencia, where a two-storey house caught fire at around 6:30. Based on local reports and videos uploaded online, firefighters are rescuing people from balconies using cranes, and although thirteen people have been injured so far, many more may be trapped inside the high-rise buildings, the report wrote. BBC.
A person living on the second floor told La Sexta that the fire, which allegedly broke out on the fourth floor, spread very quickly to the rest of the fourteen-story building and then to a neighboring building. Based on a statement by one of the engineers, El Pais newspaper wrote that the fact that the building is covered with aluminum foam insulation panels, which insulate well, but are also highly flammable, may have played a role in the rapid spread.
Local authorities advised everyone to avoid the area, as a temporary hospital had been established to treat the injured. Since a total of 450 people live in the house that originally caught fire, and the fire has not yet been extinguished, this will likely be necessary. A Valencian politician also posted a video of firefighters rescuing a person from a floor using a crane:
