Three young people die in a fire in a student flat in Huelva

“Help, help, please!

We can not go out!".

The desperate screams of three young people trapped in a burning apartment on Villanueva de los Castillejos street, in the Isla Chica neighborhood of Huelva, still echo in the ears of their neighbors who woke up to the smell of smoke and called 112. The kids, two girls and a boy between the ages of 20 and 22, had spent the night together with seven other university classmates to celebrate the end of the exams, but the fire caused by a stove in the living room turned the party into a tragedy.

The friends managed to flee under their own power, but the other three died in hospital from smoke inhalation, being trapped in the rooms.

The young people had stayed in the house "to sleep after celebrating a party," the police sources consulted specify.

In the flat, with four rooms, the firefighters found several mattresses distributed on the floor.

The fire originated in the living room and from there spread to the rest of the apartment, the investigators explain.

“We have heard screams and the flames were rising upwards and they could not get out,” Josefa García, a neighbor of the neighborhood, recounted in a telephone conversation.

The mayor of the city, Gabriel Cruz, has explained to the media that four students lived in the house, but that they had been celebrating a party on the occasion of the end of the first semester exams.

All were students of the Faculty of Social Work of the University of Huelva.

One of the deceased was from Huelva, another from Badajoz and the boy, Daniel Romero, from Lebrija (Seville).

The young man played in the Senior B team of the Balompédica Lebrijana, which has mourned his death through his social networks.

From the Board of Directors of the Lebrijana Balompedic Union we regret the death of our youth squad Daniel Romero, a player from our club's Senior B squad, in a terrible fire suffered in a house in Huelva.

pic.twitter.com/Un1DwcmUHd

— UB Lebrijana (@ubloficial1928) January 31, 2023

At 7.45 this Tuesday, several people called 112 to alert that the first floor of a block of three houses was on fire and that there were people trapped in the house.

Seven of the students managed to get out through the backyard.

Firefighters

They located three unconscious victims, one of them in a room and two in a small room attached to the living room.

The bars with which the windows and the door that led to the balcony of the street were protected prevented them from going out there.

"Smoke, gases, heat, stress, bars... in a fire there are many factors that make it difficult for you to flee," explains César Sánchez, spokesman for the municipal fire brigade.

The three young people were immediately evacuated and attended by 061, but without luck.

The two women died upon arrival at the Juan Ramón Jiménez hospital and the man, at the Infanta Elena hospital.

In addition, several more people, at least eight, have been affected by smoke inhalation, according to police sources and the 061 Health Emergency Center.

Firefighters have evacuated the building and have requested a review of the entire property.

Municipal technicians have ruled out that the structure is in danger.

The firefighters have reported that the fire had affected the living room and the kitchen, with "very significant" damage, and that the rest of the rooms had "smoke damage."

The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno, has expressed his condolences to family and colleagues.

"The loss of three young people in Huelva in such a terrible way overwhelms us all," he wrote in a Twitter message.

The spokesman for the Andalusian Government, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, has called for "caution and precaution" in the use of braziers, stoves and other electrical devices to avoid events like the one in Huelva.