A hypothesis took shape yesterday: the fire that destroyed two towers of a building in the city of Valencia, causing 10 deaths, could have started in the mechanism of the electric motor of the awning of door 86, on the eighth floor. It is just a hypothesis, but yesterday it was the one that was pointed out from sources close to the scientific police team that is investigating the case and, furthermore, the one that responded to a certain logic. It is not a certainty yet, since the investigation, under judicial investigation, continues. But it is most likely.
When the first spark occurred, no one was in the apartment where the fire occurred, which has also caused hundreds of victims, since the tenant was outside. It also occurred on the terrace; evidence that can be seen with the many videos that were made in the first moments. The fire did not, therefore, have an origin inside the home, it was external. And the first thing that was seen burning (from the recorded images) was, precisely, the awning.
There was, therefore, no human error in the generation of the fire: it was an electrical failure, possibly the awning motor. The police located the tenant of that home, who was traveling, and he assured that he had not left any electrical device on, according to what the newspaper Levante EMV reported yesterday.
That is the hypothesis. Sources from the administration of this property told La Vanguardia that many neighbors had installed electric awnings. “But we had never heard that they caused any problems,” they added. A technician specialized in the analysis of fire causes from the Valencia Fire Consortium consulted pointed out that, according to the images, it was almost certain that it was all about an “electrical failure” outside, on the terrace. This specialist added that in a case like this one cannot say how long it will take to find out the specific cause, which will depend on many factors, including the testimony of the owner or tenant of the home.
There is the hypothesis, and then there are the certainties. One of them is that the material with which the façade cladding was made played in favor of the fire, in an accelerated manner, as has already been explained in this newspaper. To which the strong west wind helped. This same technician acknowledged that “that was not normal, that façade was built with a flammable material, many colleagues told me that they were surprised by how everything was accelerated.” A house in this same building suffered a fire in 2012. It was a fire that started inside door 51 and the origin was the battery of a smartphone. The fire was confined to the interior of the apartment and was quickly extinguished.
The Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, confirmed that the scientific police had already searched the two towers “inch by inch” to collect all the samples that will be analyzed to conclude both the origin of the fire and the speed with which it spread along the façade. .
Another important piece of information was reported yesterday by the newspaper Las Provincias. The damaged building, with 143 homes, received approval from the Fire Prevention Department of the Valencia Fire Department in 2005, the date on which the keys were handed over to the buyers. It was the same year in which, in July, the definitive license was granted to the property, which had all the papers in order. This information has been provided by the Valencia City Council to the court investigating the case. The building, designed by the developer FBEX, owned by Juan Henares Parada, began to be promoted in 2000.
The Government delegate also pointed out yesterday that all samples of the recovered bodies have already been taken and that an attempt is being made to identify the bodies, something that is expected to be done in the coming days thanks to the collaboration in the identification of the Central Police Station. of the Scientific Police of Madrid. Barnabas did not want to talk about hypotheses or causes and limited himself to remembering that there is a secret of summary. In fact, the head of the Court of Instruction 9 of Valencia yesterday assumed the responsibility to investigate the causes and circumstances of the fire that occurred in two buildings in the Campanar neighborhood, and ratified the secrecy of the proceedings.
Meanwhile, those affected are trying to recover, as much as possible, a certain normality. The first families have already begun to settle in some of the 131 homes that the Valencia City Council has made available to them for a period of three months that is “fully extendable,” the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, hastened to clarify. That first period, she explained, “is enough to see the social vulnerability of families.” Thus, the first mayor highlighted that “no one here is going to be left without housing from one day to the next”, but that this period, “completely extendable”, will work so that municipal technicians can study each case individually.
“The idea is that families can resume, to the extent possible, their lives and can leave the hotel that provided them with their first welcome, to recover a space in which to resume their routines, a comfortable, habitable place where they are Families shocked by the event can feel at ease,” said Catalá. Yesterday again, a minute of silence with representatives of all political forces remembered the victims of the tragedy in the Valencia City Hall square. Minutes before, the local Government Board approved withdrawing from the municipal collection system the IBI receipts corresponding to the year 2024 of those properties affected by the fire, in order to study their situation.
Last night, the plenary session of the Consell de la Generalitat Valenciana approved a package of financial aid for those affected. These are economic and social resources that will be activated immediately.
