Spain fire: up to 15 people still missing after Valencia apartment block blaze

Firefighters working at the scene on Friday morning. Photograph: Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images

Emergency services are still searching for as many as 15 people reported missing after a huge fire ripped through an apartment block in Valencia in eastern Spain.

Four people are confirmed dead and more than a dozen injured after a fire broke out on Thursday afternoon on the fourth floor of the building. Half the injured are firefighters.

Pilar Bernabé, the Spanish government’s representative in Valencia, said that some of the missing are foreign residents who may be difficult to locate. A two-year-old child and a two-month-old baby are among those unaccounted for.

Experts said the building was covered with highly flammable cladding, which could account – along with the windy conditions – for the rapid spread of the blaze. Within minutes of the fire starting at about 5.30pm on Thursday the entire building was ablaze, and within the space of an hour was completely destroyed. By Friday morning the block was just a blackened shell. Firefighters are continuing efforts to cool the building down.

The local authority has offered survivors, most of whom have lost everything, lodging in hotels. Among them are a couple of Ukrainian refugees.

“In the name of the Spanish government and, I believe, on behalf of Spanish society, I’d like to offer our solidarity, affection and sympathy to the families of the victims of this terrible fire,” Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, said during a visit to Valencia on Friday.

“This is a sad day for Valencia,” María José Catalá, the mayor, said.

Luis Ibanez, who lives nearby, told broadcaster TVE that he had looked out of a window and seen the flames engulfing the building “within a matter of minutes”.

“[It was] as if it was made of cork,” he said. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The whole side of the building directly opposite was on fire, from the first floor to the sixth and seventh floor.”

Esther Puchades, the deputy head of Valencia’s Industrial Engineers Association (COGITI), told local media the fire had spread so rapidly because the building, constructed in 2005, was covered with highly combustible polyurethane cladding.

The fears of polyurethane cladding exacerbating the Valencia fire recalled the 2017 tragedy at Grenfell Tower. In that incident, a fire at the 24-storey high-rise in west London killed 72 people. The blaze spread rapidly due to the highly combustible cladding on the block’s outside walls. A public inquiry into the disaster has yet to publish its final report

“Back then [when the apartment block was built] there weren’t restrictions on the types of cladding material nor on the terrace furniture,” said Luis Sendra, president of the Valencia college of architects, adding that the design led to a chimney effect, aiding the spread of the fire.

European regulations on cladding materials were upgraded in the wake of the Grenfell disaster.

The Spanish football federation has called for a minute’s silence before the kick-off of the Spain v the Netherlands women’s football international this evening.