On the evening of Thursday 22nd February 2024, the Campanar neighbourhood of Valencia, Spain’s third biggest city, suffered its worst ever recorded fire when a fire broke out on the fourth floor of a 14-storey apartment block. Within 40 minutes it had spread to the adjoining 10-storey apartment block.
10 people died and at least 13 people, including six firefighters, suffered burns, fractures and smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire is as yet unknown, but the fire rapidly spread throughout the block and to the adjoining building as winds of 40mph fanned the flames.
Experts have speculated that another major factor in how the fire was able to spread so quickly is the cladding on the façade. Esther Puchades, Vice-President of the College of Industrial Technical Engineers of Valencia claimed that when she had previously inspected the building it was covered in cladding formed of a polyurethane material under aluminium. When the plastic material comes into contact with flames it melts and catches fire, spreading the flames higher whilst dropping flaming chunks to floors below. It is reported that this type of cladding was banned in 2019 due to its flammability but that it was not subsequently required to be removed from buildings where it was in use. Spain’s Association of Rigid Polyurethane Industry has released a statement insisting there is no evidence that the façade of the Valencia buildings incorporated polyurethane.
Luis Sendra, a member of Valencia’s architects’ association suspects that the type of cladding used created a chimney effect, this is where a cavity between the outer aluminium cladding and the inner insulation forms a chimney and draws the fire upwards.
The issue of flammable cladding was highlighted in the UK in 2017 following the Grenfell Tower disaster where 72 people lost their lives in a fire that rapidly engulfed the 24-storey tower block.
The fire was started by an electrical fault in a refrigerator on the fourth floor. At 0.54am London Fire Brigade were alerted by the resident of the flat, two fire engines were dispatched with the first firefighters entering the flat at 1.07am. At 1.08am the fire began to penetrate the window frame and within minutes the surrounding cladding had caught fire. By 1.30am a rising column of flames had reached the roof and the fire was out of control. It had spread rapidly up the building's exterior, bringing flames and smoke to all residential floors, accelerated by dangerously combustible aluminium composite cladding and external insulation, with an air gap between them enabling the stack or chimney effect. The fire on the eastern exterior then spread sideways and brought smoke and flames into multiple flats.
The findings of the Grenfell Tower public inquiry prompted changes in British fire safety legislation. It was ruled that unsafe cladding must be removed from buildings with the government launching a scheme to fund its removal.
Ivan Cabrera, director of Valencia University’s School of Architecture, told Spanish media that Spain should conduct the same overhaul of fire safety regulations and mass cladding renovation that the UK has seen since the 2017 Grenfell disaster.
An ongoing investigation has been launched into the cause of the fire. It is believed to have started in an empty eight-floor flat and is being linked to a probable electrical fault.
A cat called Coco was rescued by firefighters from a dry riser on the 13th floor eight days after the fire. It is unknown how the cat survived but his owner was overjoyed to see him again having given him up for dead.