Noa de la Torre Valencia

Valencia

Updated Thursday, February 22, 2024-21:28

  • Live Fire in a 14-story building in Valencia, breaking news live

  • C. Valenciana A huge fire devastates a housing complex in Valencia: two people are rescued from a balcony

"The

polyurethane

on the façade turned the building into a chimney."

This is how forceful

Juan Antonio de Diego

, an expert insurance appraiser and expert in the structure of the building that this Thursday was devoured by flames in Valencia, in the Campanar neighborhood, is.

Specifically, the property, which is part of an

urbanization with 138 homes

in which half a thousand residents live, had a façade coated with polyurethane, a "very flammable material."

The 14-story building has "a ventilated façade with alucobond, behind which is polyurethane," describes the expert.

"It is

the reason why the fire has spread so quickly

," he insists, added to the fact that strong gusts of wind have been recorded in Valencia this Thursday.

The facade of the residential building, therefore, had a "combustible coating because architects do not think that a building could catch fire," explains De Diego.

In fact, the use of polyurethane is not prohibited in Spain, although there are countries that have already banned its use.

Polyurethane, for example, covered

London's Grenfell Tower

, which was also destroyed by fire in 2017.

The exciting rescue of a father and his daughter in the Valencia building fire

In the case of Valencia, De Diego attributes the use of polyurethane to "the construction defects of the

brick boom

years ."

In this sense, the Campanar building in which the fire originated dates back to the early 2000s.

As the expert explains, "it is a synthetic material that allows the ventilated façade to have great thermal performance because it prevents cold and heat, but it is combustible."

The virulence of the fire has been felt throughout Valencia.

The most serious fire that the city has ever suffered has caused columns of smoke visible for kilometers, while the smell of burning has spread throughout all the neighborhoods.