A total of six people died and another 17 were injured with burns and smoke inhalation, three of them seriously, in a fire in a nursing home in Moncada, Valencia (southern Spain), which led to the eviction of 71 people, as reported this Wednesday by the Emergency authorities of the Valencian Generalitat (local government).
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The fire started around 11:20 p.m. local (10:20 p.m. UTC) on Tuesday in a room on the first floor and, after receiving Emergencies the notice, six fire crews and the Generalitat Police traveled to the scene, while the Civil Guard took charge of the investigation of the causes of the fire, which was considered controlled two hours later.
The local Health Department reported this Wednesday that five people died in the same residential center and the sixth, later in the hospital to which it was evacuated.
According to the Emergency Information and Coordination Center (CICU), the deceased are three men aged 67, 79 and 85 and three women aged 78, 89 and 95.
Video of the actions of the Consorci de Bombers de València at the fire of a residence of great people in Moncada, which has left its fatalities and various deaths. A thirty effectius of @BombersValencia They go to the end of the extinction and rescue tasks pic.twitter.com/5SulqkACt0
— Bombers Consortium VLC (@BombersValencia)
January 19, 2022
It also transpired that 15 of the 17 injured have had to be transferred to different hospitals. Among the injured there are seven police officers, three members of Civil Protection and a Civil Guard agent who had to be treated.
The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, who went to the residence this morning, has stated that, in the absence of confirmation, everything indicates that the fire at the residence in Moncada (Valencia) could have been due to “a short circuit” of “some oxygen machine that was in operation”. The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, also expressed his regret over the events.
Puig has expressed his condolences to the families that “unfortunately have lost a loved one in this misfortune” and those who have relatives hospitalized, and has considered that the fundamental thing at this time is that the injured people recover.
Attentive to the tragic news coming from Moncada. My condolences to the families of the deceased. We are following with concern the evolution of the injured people. All our support for them and for the town.
– Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon)
January 19, 2022
The City Council of the city of Moncada decreed, meanwhile, three days of official mourning for the fire that occurred in the Residence for the Third Age and called for a minute of silence at noon this Wednesday at the door of the City Hall, where the flags will wave at half-staff until Friday, according to a statement issued by the city council.