[Ammi]

Entire family including newborn among 10 killed in Valencia’s ‘Grenfell Tower’ inferno…

A huge fire killed 10 people, including an entire family and their newborn baby, as it ripped through a multi-storey apartment block in Valencia.

Firefighters rescued some occupants from their balconies as high winds fanned the flames during the incident in the Spanish city’s affluent Campanar neighbourhood.

Experts linked the fire to the 2017 blaze at London’s Grenfell Tower, which killed 72 people, saying the building’s cladding may have contributed to the ferocity of the inferno.

Firefighters with masks and oxygen tanks worked their way through the charred building on Friday, looking for bodies or survivors hours after the blaze started the previous evening.

The fire began around 5.30pm on Thursday on the apartment block’s fourth floor.

It swept through the building in about 30 minutes, witnesses and the emergency services said. It was not immediately clear what had caused the blaze or why it spread so quickly.

The family of four – a father, mother, three-year-old girl and two-week-old baby – had sought refuge in their flat’s bathroom when the fire broke out but perished in the flames as they spread.

Authorities said six other occupants of the 14-storey building had also been killed.

“We can confirm that following a first inspection, forensic police have found 10 fatalities,” regional administrator Pilar Bernabe told reporters.

A judge has opened an investigation into the tragedy.

Visiting the scene on Friday, Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, said residents “had lost everything in a matter of minutes”.

He added he was in contact with María José Catalá, Valencia’s mayor, and other local officials “to offer whatever help was needed”.

The building, comprising two towers linked by what its developers described as a “panoramic lift” housed more than 130 flats, local media reported.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/firefighte...212123933.html