Four dead and dozens injured and missing in the worst fire in the city’s history
A devastating fire consumed nearly 140 homes in the Campanar neighborhood of Valencia in just one hour, leaving a tragic toll of four people dead and many others injured and missing. The fire spread with impressive speed for three main reasons. On the one hand, the very high temperatures for this time of year. For another, the west wind, which blew with intensity throughout the day reaching over 60 kilometers per hour. And finally, the material from which the facade of the two blocks of flats was made, sold as “luxury homes” by the Catalan real estate company Fbex, which went bankrupt with 500 million in debt.
The facade contained polyurethane, a flammable material that ignited like a torch
According to the specialist who carried out the appraisal of the building a few years ago, Esther Puchades, the facade was made up of aluminum plates with a polyurethane insulator, a combustible and highly flammable element that has been the cause of several fires in last years. The property was built in 2005 and at the time it was “unknown” how dangerous this material was, which was responsible for the fire that killed 70 people in June 2017 at Grenfell Tower in London (UK). Also in Madrid, the Windsor Tower burned down in 2005 for the same reason, but without causing any fatalities. In a conversation with Europa Press, the professor of the Civil Engineering Department of Construction and Civil Engineering Projects of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Antonio Hospitaler, who was present after the fire, explained that the spread through the facade is “much faster than a fire in the open air” and that, if it had been built with brick, “it would not have spread”.
The Technical Building Code provides for this kind of situation and prohibits combustible materials on the facade
This expert pointed out that the Technical Building Code, since the year after the flames broke out in Madrid, in 2006, and with recent modifications that have taken place, -after 2017- “provides for this kind of situation and that the materials of the facade are not combustible to avoid the spread of fires”. This professor indicated that the facade has a “physical property in which the flames stick to it and, in doing so, they go up at full speed.” This caused the fire to spread everywhere quickly. He also added that this caused the windows of the houses to break and the fire to spread inside the houses. The professor pointed out that now it is the investigation that will have to determine the origin, if the fire started inside a home, passed to the facade and, from there, to the rest of the building , or if it originated on the same facade.
A developer with 500 million in debt sold the flats as “luxury homes” with “non-flammable” material
In a promotional video before selling the residences, Fbex – owned by the developer Juan Parada Henares – advertised them assuring that they were two “avant-garde and unique” buildings that had “facades covered with an innovative aluminum material such as alucobond” which, in return, they presented as “hardly flammable” or directly “non-flammable”. The real estate company also ensured the “maximum quality in construction materials with modern installations, finishes and equipment” and claimed that it had carried out “quality controls throughout the building process”. At the time, the flats were worth 300,000 euros, as the same neighborhood has testified. A figure that, at the time, was very high, but which was part of the real estate boom and in one of the most luxurious areas of the capital of the Valencian Country. Some time later, the property of Henares collapsed, leaving a debt of nearly 30 million with public administrations after entering bankruptcy.
A skeleton that remembers the worst fire ever declared in the city
Now, what has been home to 400 neighbors has become a skeleton that remembers the history of the worst fire ever declared in the city. A kind of giant match that has been giving off smoke for hours and hours and is now starting to go out. Of course, leaving the dark trail of flames that may still hide more fatalities.