At least nine people were killed by a huge fire that ripped through an apartment block in an affluent district of Spain’s third largest city, Valencia, authorities said on Friday.
The blaze, fanned by strong winds, engulfed the block in Valencia’s El Campanar district within half an hour on Thursday evening, witnesses said.
Still shaken, one of the surviving residents, 53-year-old Jose Carlos Perez, told Reuters he grabbed what he could and rushed out of his 12th floor apartment after he saw smoke outside his window.
“Physically, I’m dressed, but inside I’m naked because I have nothing, because everything I had was there,” Perez, who lived alone, said as he stood outside the SH Valencia Palace hotel, where more than 100 survivors like himself are being temporarily housed.
Firefighters with masks and oxygen tanks worked their way through the charred building on Friday looking for bodies or survivors. Valencia Mayor Maria Jose Catala said later in the day that there were no more missing people.
On Friday evening, authorities confirmed on X police had revised the number of dead to nine from 10 in the process of identifying the bodies in the building.
Two firefighters suffered serious injuries and were hospitalised.
Valencians flocked to donate clothes, medicines and toys for surviving residents who lost all their belongings in the fire.
The director of the SH Valencia Palace hotel, Javier Valles, said they were temporarily housing 110 people and a regional official said they would receive money for daily costs. The majority of survivors are staying with relatives.