Alberto Mas Valencia
Valencia
Updated Friday, February 23, 2024-10:13
Live Fire in Valencia, last minute
Valencia At least four dead in the huge fire that devastated a housing complex in Campanar
Album The shocking photos of the Valencia fire
"We arrived in
Valencia
escaping the bombs in
Ukraine
and now a
fire
has left us with nothing."
The speaker is
Dymitro Hambarov
, a resident of door 24 of the building devoured by flames in the
Campanar
neighborhood .
He and his partner,
Oksana Volkova
, are among the first rehoused in the Valencia Palace hotel to go outside.
It's his turn to take out his dog 'Chuck', one of the few routines that hasn't been destroyed by the fire.
As soon as you cross the hotel door outside, they attend to the journalists.
Their faces reflect the fear they have experienced since Thursday afternoon.
Dymitro explains that after 5:00 p.m. they began to see smoke on the eighth floor and that
in a matter of 10 minutes the entire building was already on fire
.
They lived on the fourth floor, with its balcony overlooking Poeta Rafel Alberti
Avenue
.
That was his home since October 2023. "Now we don't know where we are going to go," he admits with cold calm to EL MUNDO.
This young couple from Khrliv tells what they experienced inside the residential complex.
"The building
did not have a fire alarm
, no alarm sounded. We did not have time to take almost anything; we went down the stairs quickly, I wanted to take the car that is in the garage, but the Police prevented us."
Their vehicle is their main concern right now and they ask if the fire has reached the garage.
"It's new and the only thing we have left," they repeat while checking their cell phones.
The man comments that the two of them are not the only Ukrainians who lived in those
138 homes
.
"There were about
15 people who had fled the war
and lived there," says Dymitro.
According to what he tells us, he has been able to have contact with almost all of his compatriots and
they are in good condition
.
However, many of the pets they had died in their homes.
Oksana regrets that firefighters could not access the interior of the building to extinguish the fire.
"In Ukraine our houses are bombed and firefighters enter the middle of the flames," she explains.
For her, the strong gusts of wind and the "chimney effect" produced by the polyurethane that covered part of the façade are not sufficient reasons for anyone to do anything to save her home.
According to the director of the Alameda Palace hotel,
Javier Vallés
, there are
38 residents
staying in the rooms, including two Ukrainian couples.
Vallés points out that they are in contact with the City Council to be able to provide all the necessary help.