Spanish apartment block fire: 14 people missing, at least 5 dead
Firefighters were searching on Friday for 14 people, including a couple, their toddler and two-week-old baby, still missing after a huge fire ripped through an apartment block in the Spanish city of Valencia, killing at least five people and injuring 15.
Firefighters were searching on Friday for 14 people, including a couple, their toddler and two-week-old baby, still missing after a huge fire ripped through an apartment block in the Spanish city of Valencia, killing at least five people and injuring 15.
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.
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.
Firefighters work at a burned block building in Valencia, Spain, on Friday.Alberto Saiz / APThe 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.
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