Sono quattro le vittime accertate, e almeno venti le persone disperse, che i vigili del fuoco ritengono non essere sopravvissute, dell'incendio di enormi proporzioni che ha divorato e ridotto a uno scheletro incandescente un edificio di 14 piani nel quartiere Campanar, a Valencia. Le fiamme, che si sono sviluppate alle 17:30 dall'ottavo piano per motivi in corso di accertamento, a causa del forte vento di ponente e delle temperature elevate di 25 gradi si sono rapidamente propagate lungo la verticale del grattacielo ed estese anche alla torre 2, nello stesso blocco del complesso residenziale, dove complessivamente vivono circa 350 persone in 140 appartamenti.
Secondo un bilancio provvisorio, confermato alla tv nazionale Rtve dal vicedirettore del coordinamento delle Emergenze, Jorge Suarez, almeno 4 corpi sono stati localizzati al nono piano della torre 1 dai droni dei vigili del fuoco, che a causa delle altissime temperature non possono ancora entrare nell'edificio, a rischio di crollo. "Non possiamo dare al momento ulteriori informazioni , stiamo lavorando per raffreddare l'edificio", ha detto Suarez. Ma almeno altre venti persone risultano disperse "e non si spera di ritrovarle in vita", secondo i vigili del fuoco citati dal quotidiano Levante. Altre 14 persone sono rimaste ferite, per fratture, ustioni e intossicazione da fumo, fra i quali vari pompieri e un bambino, ricoverati in vari ospedali della città.
Fotoracconto Rogo divora due edifici a Valencia, morti e dispersi
Numerous residents, including a father with his daughter and a couple, who had been trapped for a long time on the balconies of the upper floors of the building, were brought to safety by the firefighters, who rushed to the scene with dozens of teams, while a hospital was being set up to camp and send mobile burn and resuscitation units.
The firefighters have not yet inspected the interior of the building, which risks collapsing.
The 112 emergency services avail themselves of the collaboration of the Ume, the military unit of the army, which sent a caravan of vehicles from Madrid to bring the flames under control and secure the two towers.
The testimonies of the residents of the luxury residential complex, in one of the expansion areas of the city, symbol of the real estate boom, are dramatic.
"We saw the windows explode from the fire and the temperature became unbearable and we fled outside. But there were still many people inside, screaming desperately looking for their relatives and who were told by the firefighters to put wet clothes under them. the doors to try to block the flames and smoke", said Vicente, interviewed by national TV RTVE.
"We are surprised by the speed with which the flames spread, an hour later the fire also reached tower 2, there are still many people inside", Adriana Banu, the complex's administrator, said in shock and tears. to the local media Levante.
According to an initial reconstruction by the firefighters, the insulating material on the buildings built 15 years ago would have favored the rapid development of the fire, even without the fire prevention systems having been activated.
The vice-president of the Order of Industrial Technical Engineers of Valencia, Esther Pchades, who carried out an assessment of the skyscraper, attributed the voracity of the flames to the coating of a layer of polyurethane between the aluminum plates that covered the facade, a "highly flammable" product. , which caused the flames to spread to the entire building in less than half an hour," he told Valencian TV A' Punt.
According to the expert, the fire will establish "a before and after" in Spain, where until now no episode of such dramatic proportions had occurred.
After the fire in the Grenfell skyscraper in London in 2017, which caused dozens of victims, some countries, including Great Britain, banned polyurethane in facade construction, but not Spain where, especially during the real estate boom of decade 2000-2009, the date in which the construction of the two towers of Valencia dates back, would have been widely used.
And "it still is, although isolated with fire barriers", to prevent the fire from spreading in the event of a fire.
According to Puchades, after today's fire in Spain, where so far no fire of such vast proportions had occurred, the legislation could be revised to ban the use of polyurethane in building cladding. Meanwhile, during the night in Valencia, a solidarity competition among citizens to reallocate the evacuated families who were all hosted, including in hotels and reception facilities, after losing everything in the tragic fire.
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