Noa de la Torre Valencia

Valencia

Updated Friday, February 23, 2024-23:43

  • Live Fire in a building in Valencia, last minute live

  • Human tragedy The death toll rises to nine in the fire that devastated a building in Valencia

It was 2006 in

Valencia

, when no one imagined that the real estate bubble was close to bursting.

The city took advantage of the brick boom to expand in the northwest, even giving shape to a new neighborhood,

Nou Campanar

, which would become famous for planting the million euro fault.

It was then that the

developer Fbex

began to advertise a new luxury development, with apartments at 6,000 euros per square meter, with a swimming pool, large balconies... And that tower of buildings, whose sale was choked some time later due to the crisis, is today a black skeleton, completely charred.

"The building burned as if it were a fault," commented yesterday

Kiko

and

Belén

, both neighbors who have lost everything in the most devastating fire in the history of Valencia.

The most serious tragedy after the 2006 metro accident, with nine fatalities confirmed yesterday by the

Government

and

Emergencies Delegation of the Generalitat

, the day after the image of the towers engulfed in flames went around the world.

Belén, who at the time of the fire was in her second home in

Denia

, saw her apartment disappear in a matter of seconds.

Live and through the screen.

"We have security cameras inside the apartment and we have seen in real time how first the living room was burning, then the bedroom, until the cameras stopped working...", he said yesterday through tears, a few meters from the damaged development. which has 138 homes and half a thousand neighbors.

To know more

Valencian Community.

Two hypotheses for the Valencia fire: flame-throwing polyurethane or fire-dripping polyethylene

  • Editorial: NOA DE LA TORRE Valencia

  • Editor: LUIS ALEMANY Madrid

Two hypotheses for the Valencia fire: flame-throwing polyurethane or fire-dripping polyethylene

Valencian Community.

A couple with their two young children, the first fatalities: "They died of asphyxiation in the bathroom while she said goodbye to her mother on the phone"

  • Editorial: NOA DE LA TORRE Valencia

A couple with their two young children, the first fatalities: "They died of asphyxiation in the bathroom while she said goodbye to her mother on the phone"

The question everyone is asking is how the fire could spread at such speed, since in a matter of minutes it jumped from one of the balconies on the middle floors of the tallest building - the 14-story one - to the rest of the terraces.

The motor of an awning is pointed out as a possible source of the first flames.

In a matter of minutes, the fire devoured the entire façade, except for the commercial ground floor whose terraces acted as a firebreak.

An entire family suffocated

The residential complex was already a mousetrap, with people trapped inside without any possibility of being rescued.

This was the case of the family who died of asphyxiation locked in a bathroom.

The first four fatalities that could only be detected at first thanks to a drone.

In fact, the firefighters have not accessed the interior of the homes until this Friday morning, when only smoke was coming out of the interior of the apartments.

Many families with children, elderly people and numerous foreigners of medium-high purchasing power lived in the urbanization, so a significant part of the residents were rented.

Not in vain, in its day the development was marketed with luxury finishes, to the point that emphasis was even placed on the façade: «Fbex presents its new development in Valencia composed of two avant-garde and unique buildings joined by a spectacular elevator panoramic, with facades covered with an innovative alucobond-type aluminum material.

The dean of the

College of Architects of the Valencian Community

,

Luis Sendra

, pointed out yesterday the ventilated façade as one of the causes of the rapid spread of the fire.

At first, the use of polyurethane was pointed out, a flammable material whose presence in the building was denied, however, by the

Rigid Polyurethane Industry Association

.

In a statement, he assured that it was not present "neither as a filler in the exterior covering, nor as an insulating material in the air chamber."

According to Sendra, “the ventilated façade has an air chamber inside what would be the usual enclosure and the exterior, which is made beautifully with aluminum plates.

At a given moment, the flames can rise through that space and create a chimney effect.

“It was used quite a bit at that time for thermal insulation,” she confirms.

The sources consulted emphasize that a collapse of the structure cannot be ruled out.

"Apparently they have not suffered enough fire pressure to collapse, but some slab or part of the structure could collapse," according to Sendra.

In this sense, she insists that "the state of the structure could advise demolition."

"We will have to see if it is compatible with the new regulations to rehabilitate it, or directly build it again."