Benidorm fire: Three dead including a child after horror blaze rips through property | World | News
Three people have died and a further 15 people have been injured following a horror fire in Benidorm.
It was reported that the fire started at around 2.15am this morning at a property in Villajoyosa and that two adults and a minor were the victims of the incident. The police said the fire began on the 11th floor of the 24-story apartment building and the victims were from the same family according to local media reports
Other casualties have been treated for smoke inhalation, seven are women between the ages of 24 and 67 and eight are men between the ages of 13 and 57. Some of the victims suffering from smoke inhalation were taken to the Marina Baixa hospital to revive treatment while a local police officer received treatment and was discharged at the scene. Local media reported that nine people were still hospital and that six have so far been discharged.
The property where the fire occurred is a 10-minute drive from Benidorm.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the regional government-run emergency response coordination centre said: “The fire broke out in a flat on the 11th floor of a residential apartment block in Villajoyosa. Three fire crews were sent to the scene along with paramedics. We received the alarm at 2.13am this morning. The blaze was put out at 7.34am.”
Ondacero reported that the three victims were part of the same family and were a grandmother, son, and five-year-old grandson. Furthermore, the Emergency Information and Coordination Centre said that around 100 people were evacuated from the apartment block. They clarified that the fire was brought under control at 3.32am and the official “intervention” was concluded at 7.39am.
Reports suggest a woman was heard screaming in Spanish as flames gripped the building. She was heard shouting: “Help, help please”, but it is not yet known if she was one of the victims. Furthermore, the nationalities of the victims and injured have not been made public.
Following the fire, Villajoyosa has declared three days of national mourning. This has been confirmed by Mayor Marcos Zaragoza after visiting the site of the fire earlier this morning. Both the President of Diputación de Alicante, Toni Pérez, and, Carlos Mazón, President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, are expected to visit the site of the fire.
This isn’t the first fire to hit Spain in recent weeks. On February 22, ten people were killed when a fire tore through a residential block in Valencia. The apartment block where the fire happened is just a two-minute walk from where Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian defector, was shot dead on February 13. Mr Kuzminov, 28, had been living under a fake identity after escaping to Ukraine last year.
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