Four dead, 14 missing after fire guts Spanish apartment block
SPAIN (AFP) — Fire crews on Friday picked through a still-smouldering 14-storey apartment block in Valencia, eastern Spain, a day after a blaze ripped through the building killing four people and leaving at least 14 missing.
Experts said the building was covered with highly flammable cladding, which could account for the rapid spread of the blaze after it broke out on the fourth floor at around 5:30 pm on Thursday.
Dramatic images showed clouds of black smoke as the flames consumed the high rise of 138 flats in the Campanar district of the Mediterranean port city.
“Four people have died,” Jorge Suarez Torres, deputy director of emergency services for the Valencia region, told reporters overnight.
Fifteen people were treated for injuries of varying degrees, including a seven-year-old child and seven firemen, but their lives were not in danger.
Visiting the scene on Friday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the “priority now” is to search for the victims.
He encouraged people to “show empathy, affection and solidarity with the victims, with their families, with those who still do not know exactly what has happened” to their loved ones.
Spanish media said rescue workers had used drones to locate the bodies of those who perished.