The 10 people who died in the fire that ripped through an apartment complex in Valencia on Thursday lived on the eighth and ninth floors. These are the floors above where the fire started on the seventh floor, for reasons currently unknown. The two floors became a mousetrap between the violence of the flames and the choking smoke that in a few minutes invaded the two blocks of 14 and 10 floors in which the 138 apartments were distributed. This Saturday, the scientific police found a tenth missing body to complete the list of missing people. Nevertheless, the government delegate of the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, assured that the search continues “inch by inch” to build a building of which only the structure and rubble remain. “I have to assume that we won’t find anything anymore,” wished Barnabas.
Fortunately, many of the complex's more than 400 residents were not in their homes when the fire broke out at 5:30 p.m. Others noticed the flames and smoke in time and left the building. A few more were notified by the caretaker, who urged them and helped them get out onto the street. A couple was rescued from a balcony by firefighters after two hours of agonizing waiting, when the troops had already reached the lowest floor balconies with stairs through which they rescued a neighbor. Some even used the elevator to get to the ground floor and escape the fire. But ten didn't make it. They were all on the upper floors.
The fire chief of the Valencia City Council, Enrique Chisbert, defended the actions of his colleagues, which were also praised by the representatives of all the institutions. “We saw firefighters who thought they were saying goodbye to their work and even their lives at that moment,” said Pilar Bernabé. The Valencia City Council, chaired by María José Catalá, has adopted an institutional declaration praising the “delivery and selflessness” of the security and emergency authorities and services and “most particularly of the firefighters”. One of them, who was injured, saw the fire coming particularly close and asked his companions over his walkie-talkie and in a broken voice to say goodbye to his wife to tell him I wanted.
But the work of the firefighters is also being questioned because some firefighters on the top floors recommended not leaving the houses. “Houses are the safest place if the building ensures sectorization conditions and we can extinguish the fire,” said the fire chief. “We are following the usual protocol. For homes at risk, when entering the stairwell to evacuate in a building with smoke, we always recommend the following [los vecinos] They stay in their homes. If there are sectorization conditions, this is the best. The opposite can be a disorderly evacuation that can cause multiple casualties,” he claimed.
Work on the fire-damaged building was completed in 2008. The project complied with the 1996 fire safety regulations as the new regulations had not yet come into force at the time of implementation. The later rules are more restrictive and require the sectorization mentioned by the fire chief, which is intended to prevent the fire from jumping from one floor to another, and that there are watertight compartments in the stairs that must be separated from the apartments. through a door.
The firefighters' “operation procedure for responding to fires in high-rise buildings” mentioned by Chisbert states that in the city of Valencia there are more than 100 buildings with more than 15 floors “for the purpose of possible fire intervention” € . The document also indicates its age and the indicative information “to know what regulations have been applied to it in relation to fire safety”. The 14-story building that burned in Campanar is not listed, so firefighters had no way of knowing what its characteristics were before they arrived. Nor how strong the southerly wind, which was blowing heavily in the area where the property is located, would accelerate the fire. “I think that you could observe the behavior of the fire all over the world, you can draw conclusions from that, it spread very quickly,” argued the fire chief.
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Although the Protocol sets out the main objectives and measures in order of priority, “although they do not always follow the same order in their solution: “Ensuring the safety of those involved; saving people; rescue of animals and property; Fighting and extinguishing fires, discharging smoke and fire gases; Interruption of the affected supply (gas, electricity, water); Inspection of houses, premises and affected areas; protection of the work area and surroundings; “Verifying that the fire has been completely extinguished using the thermal imaging device to exclude hidden sources of fire” are at the top of the list. “During the entire operation, fellow firefighters obviously, as usual, took risks beyond our capabilities. “I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but the early crews were very exposed to danger,” Chisbert claimed. One of his troops remains in the hospital, although his life is not in danger. Another was released this Saturday.
Those who also continued their work were the forensic experts of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, who, in collaboration with the National Police, analyzed the ten bodies to ensure complete identification of all the deceased and to carry out their autopsies. Four of them correspond to a family consisting of a couple and their two children, three years old and barely a week old. Also that of a woman who has already retired and leaves behind two children. The victim identification phase is a complex task since, depending on the condition of the corpses, it is necessary to match them with DNA tests from relatives in order to be able to do it with all guarantees. Once the forensic reports are complete, they will be sent to the Investigative Court No. 10 in Valencia, where the procedure and investigation will be carried out to clarify the facts and determine if there is any type of negligence.
Valencia fell silent this Saturday at 12:00 p.m., with the celebration of a minute's silence in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento and another in the roundabout in front of the building, prompted by the failures of the sector that has focused on collecting clothing. Food, school supplies and hygiene items, among other things, everything that the other victims might need, all those who were left without shelter and in some cases without documents.
The President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, took part in the “official” minute of silence; the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá; the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant; the government delegate of the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé,ç; and the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Julián, the condominium's caretaker who has been working with police to identify missing people and victims, was also present. He also helped rescue neighbors: “I did everything I could until the smoke left me,” he said. “It's very difficult, it's very difficult to see all this, the truth is, it's very difficult,” he lamented. At the informal event, falleros, neighbors and onlookers gave thunderous applause after the silence, but even a few minutes later practically no one moved, shocked by the black mass that the building and the surrounding streets have become. the ones that still smell like smoke.
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