Death toll mounts after fire devastates Valencia apartment block

Firefighters were searching on Friday for people who were still missing after a huge fire ripped through an apartment block in the Spanish city of Valencia.

The blaze, fanned by strong winds, engulfed the block within half an hour on Thursday evening, witnesses said. An insurance expert said it may have spread so fast due to the use of a plastic material on the facade, a comment evoking memories of the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017, which killed 74.

Firefighters with masks and oxygen tanks worked their way through the charred building looking for bodies or survivors, though a spokesman for the fire service said the chances of anybody having survived such a blaze were slim. The wind was so strong at times that it had pushed back the water being hosed by firefighters, a policeman said.

Dental experts headed to Valencia from other parts of Spain to help identify charred bodies, while police collected DNA samples from relatives for the same purpose. As of Friday afternoon, the death toll had climbed from five to 10, with more people unaccounted for.

Visiting the scene on Friday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said residents "had lost everything in a matter of minutes in this terrible fire." Pope Francis was praying for all those affected by the blaze, his spokesman said.

An acrid smell hung in the air at the site of the fire in El Campanar, an affluent district of Spain's third-largest city. Valencians flocked to donate clothes, medicines and toys for residents who lost all their belongings in the fire and are now being temporarily being housed in a nearby hotel.

Panic

Panicked residents had rushed to balconies to plea for help as burning embers fell to the ground during the fire. At least two people were rescued from their balconies on cranes. "I told my daughter and mother-in-law to leave, other people stayed inside," a resident called Adriana said.

The young couple still missing on Friday had taken refuge in their bathroom with their two baby and toddler from where they had messaged friends, residents told state broadcaster RTVE. Police did not respond to a request for further details.

Emergency services said the fire began on the fourth floor but gave no cause. A local magistrate has opened an investigation into the blaze. The building, comprising two towers linked by what its developers described as a 'panoramic lift' had several dozen flats and was completed in 2008, officials said. It had 138 apartments, newspaper El Pais reported.

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Esther Puchades, a representative of insurance inspection agency APCAS, told RTVE that a lack of firewalls and use of the plastic material polyurethane on the facade would have contributed to the rapid spread of the blaze.

A 2007 promotional video by the building's developer highlighted the "innovative material" used to clad the building's exterior, which it said passed "rigorous quality checks."

The spread of the 2017 fire in the Grenfell Tower block in west London, which killed 74 people after an electrical fault, was blamed on the use of highly flammable external cladding.

Valencia has decreed three days of mourning, canceled local football matches and suspended the start of the city's month-long annual Fallas festival which features the torching of large cardboard statues and a firework display.

Valencia's mayor Maria Jose Catala said 131 temporary homes were being prepared for residents and a regional official said they would receive money for daily costs and rent.

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