The death toll from a fire that destroyed two homes in the Spanish city of Valencia rose to 10 on Saturday after authorities said they had found the body of what was believed to be the last person missing.
Valencia’s central government representative Pilar Bernabe told reporters that forensic police had found a 10th victim inside the building. Police say they plan to proceed with DNA testing to confirm the identities of all the victims.
There were no other reports of missing people, but Bernabe said police and firefighters continued the complex process of scouring the rubble for other possible victims.
It was not immediately clear how many people were in the two buildings at the time of the fire, but the complex had about 140 apartments.
The fire, which appears to have started in a home on Thursday afternoon, consumed the remainder of the 14-story apartment complex in less than an hour, with construction materials used in the facade contributing to the fire’s rapid spread. There is a question as to whether this is the case.
Neighbors said they saw the fire spreading rapidly, leaving people stranded on their balconies and seeing children screaming. Those displaced by the fire, including many Ukrainian refugees who lived in the complex, were initially evacuated to hotels in the city, but are expected to be moved to other accommodation over the weekend.
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Experts have suggested that certain cladding materials may have sped up the fire’s spread, but Valencia Mayor María José Catalla said the cause was still unknown and that no materials used in the building’s construction could have helped the fire spread. He said it was too early to comment on whether some of the materials used could have caused the fire. Made it worse.
