VALENCIA: The victims of a huge fire that ripped through an apartment building in Valencia, Spain, were mourned on Saturday as authorities said the death toll had risen to 10.
The fire, fanned by strong winds, broke out on Thursday evening in the affluent neighborhood of El Campanar.
Police, in the process of identifying bodies in the building, revised the death toll to nine out of 10 on Friday, but confirmed that a 10th fatality had been found on Saturday.
As Valencians gathered at the scene to pay their respects, a single white flower was taped to a pole outside the charred building.
Pilar Zamora, 53, who was traveling through the city with her husband, said she felt “a lot of pain and anger”.
“Seeing (on TV) people on the balcony, screaming for help and not being able to do anything…those were very difficult moments,” Zamora held back tears.
Her husband Vicente Palaes, 55, said he had no words to describe how he felt when he approached the building: “When I saw it, I started crying.”
About 100 survivors are staying in a local hotel, where they await a more permanent solution.
At midday on Saturday – the second of three official days of mourning declared after the fire – hundreds of people gathered outside Valencia’s town hall for a moment of silence as flags flew at half-mast.
At the city’s San Miguely San Sebastian church, Catholic priest Juan Andres Talens said people were praying for those affected.
“We are grieving,” Talens said as mass was held inside the historic church.
Emergency services said the fire started on the fourth floor of one of the towers. The local municipality has launched an investigation into the fire.
The building, consisting of two towers, was completed in 2008, officials said. It had 138 apartments, El Pais newspaper reported.
The absence of firewalls and the use of polyurethane, a plastic material, on the facade of the building would have contributed to the rapid spread of the fire, Esther Puchades, a representative of insurance inspection agency APCAS, told RTVE in comments evoking memories of the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017.
The Polyurethane Industry Association said in a statement that no polyurethane was used in the building’s cladding.
Local residents have urged the authorities to ensure that other buildings in the city are not at risk.
“If any building has the same cladding, now is the time to investigate and remove it,” Zamora said.
