Unprecedented mobilization in Valencia to help more than 400 people who have lost everything due to the fire in the building in the Campanar district. A mobilization that includes public institutions – Government, Generalitat Valenciana and City Council -, private companies and insurers and also social groups that have poured in from the first hour to cover the effects of a tragedy that has caused 10 deaths and that has generated alarm about the materials with which the facade of the building burned by the flames was made. The priority now is twofold: to identify all the fatalities, which is why the DNA tests are being carried out, and to rehouse all the people, including many families, who have been left without a home.
The City Council of Valencia bears the brunt of the operation. The appliances have already been installed and the 131 homes that will be offered to families are expected to be ready by the end of the week. A neighbor warned on Saturday that on February 29, next Thursday, they would have to leave the hotel where up to 114 people – 99 adults and 15 minors – were staying this weekend, something that the Consistory denied at one point of some uncertainty about the future of those who have been left without a home. “It can be extended as necessary, although the homes will be ready by the end of the week”, sources from the Consistory explained to La Vanguardia.
The municipal operators are speeding up the placement of furniture and appliances, as well as the water and electricity. The priority is families with children or with a “special” situation, as reported yesterday by the mayor, María José Catalá. The municipal corporation has also enabled a municipal office to manage “transversal aid”, in the words of the mayoress, where 150 applications have already been submitted. It has been made available to the affected psychologists for personal attention. The psychologist of Valencia City Council and head of the Primary Care section, Vicente Martínez, commented yesterday that these people are in “a mourning phase” and “are assimilating what has happened”.
Another objective is to advise families on legal matters. For this reason, the Valencia Bar Association has made its services available to families to help them deal with problems such as mortgage management. In this regard, experts consulted pointed out to this newspaper yesterday that everything will depend on whether there are judicial responsibilities, the response of the financial institutions with which the mortgages were contracted and the insurance policies of each company. In this respect, aside from the private insurances that refer to the “continent” of each home, the building – composed of two towers of 9 and 14 floors, and with 143 homes – has an insurance policy worth 26,511. 540.32 euros for the building and another 31,266 euros for the community furniture.
The contract for the insurance of buildings and homes is signed between the community of owners and the Mapfre company and has a date of validity from February 1, expiring on February 1, 2025, according to documents to which Efe had access. It also specifies that the insurance includes fire cover and that the building, built in 2008, has a “high” construction quality.
The owners, many of whom were able to collect their cars from the garage of the damaged property yesterday, are now facing a long process that may end up in court. In fact, they have already started to organize. They held a meeting with the City Council on Saturday afternoon, and yesterday some requested that the disaster be declared a “catastrophic zone”, a measure that would help to expand the financial coverage of insurance companies in the event that the State who took charge of the repair costs. There are a total of 138 owners, according to the municipal census, and they are the ones who are currently waiting for the grants to be implemented.
This realization may come today. The Council of the Generalitat Valenciana will hold an extraordinary plenary today exclusively to approve a package of economic and social aid for all the families of the damaged building. The idea, according to sources from the Generalitat, is to offer “quickly and effectively” resources that allow personal activity to resume as much as possible.
At the same time, the wave of solidarity in the neighborhood mobilized many neighbors willing to help and welcome those affected. There were many voices who considered that what happened in this building results in the fact that the facade was made with flammable materials, as this newspaper has been explaining. “People are very outraged, we hope that the whole truth will be known”, pointed out Patrícia, referring to the judicial inquiry that has been launched. Also Mónica, who runs the pharmacy located in front of the burned towers, remembered that she had spoken to some of these families “and they feel a lot of anger, what has happened to them is something extraordinary and they must roll their heads if they did not things well”.
Valencia wants to overcome grief. But to achieve this, the identification of the corpses must first be completed and the funerals held. There is already talk of a tribute mass at the cathedral. Subsequently, it will be necessary to audit the situation of each family and the solutions that can be adopted in each case in accordance with the aid activated. Finally, the judicial instruction, which will be long, will condition those affected to be able to have a truthful explanation of a disaster that, perhaps, could have been radically reduced if the materials had been suitable.
