VALENCIA, Spain: Rescue teams in Spain Saturday found a tenth body at an apartment block ravaged by fire which erupted two days ago in the eastern port city of Valencia.
“This morning … a new body was found,” said the regional authorities in Valencia. “The number of bodies found inside the building has risen to 10.”
The fire broke out in the 14-storey block of flats on Thursday afternoon and quickly spread through the 138-apartment high-rise.
Fifteen people, including a seven-year-old child and seven firefighters, were treated for injuries, but their lives were not in danger.
A representative of the Valencia Fire Department, Faustino Yanguas, said the cladding material used on the facade of the building will have to be investigated as a possible cause of fire.
That, he said, was “a big contributing factor” to the rapid spread of the flames – as were strong winds with gusts of up to 60 kilometers (40 miles) per hour at the time the fire broke out.
Concerns that polyurethane cladding may have worsened the Valencia fire brought to mind the tragedy at London’s Grenfell Tower in 2017, when 72 people died in a fire at the 24-storey high-rise.
