A day after a fire roared through a high-rise residential complex in the Spanish city of Valencia, killing at least four people and leaving at least 14 missing, there were fears on Friday that those numbers could rise, because high temperatures inside the charred structure initially prevented emergency workers from searching inside.
Firefighters and police officers rushed to the scene shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Thursday as the fire engulfed the entire pair of buildings, one of which was 14 stories tall, within half an hour.
The complex, made up of two tower blocks with a total of 138 apartments, was built during Spain’s construction boom in the mid-2000s, Luis Sendra, the dean of the Official College of Architects of the Community of Valencia, said in an interview.
Firefighters were able to enter the complex around noon on Friday. But Mr. Sendra said they would have to wait until the structures cooled down to be able to determine the exact materials used in their cladding. He said that gaps between the layers of what appeared to be sheets of aluminum and polyurethane could have served as a chimney and facilitated the spread of flames.
“It’s too early to know the exact cause,” Mr. Sendra said. “But the speed with which it spread would indicate similarities with Grenfell Tower in London.”
Seventy-two people were killed in that blaze, which consumed a high-rise apartment building in western London in 2017. In that building, flammable materials had been used in the panels known as cladding, which accelerated the spread of the fire.
Mr. Sendra also told the Spanish news media that although the use of aluminum on building facades was allowed under Spain’s building regulations, the use of polyurethane as insulation was not permitted.
Pep Benlloch, the president of the local neighborhood association, said in an interview on Antenna 3 television that many foreigners, including Ukrainians, lived in the complex, but that it had originally been empty for a long time because of the prohibitive prices.
The national police, whose scientific officers are carrying out an investigation into the fire, were waiting for the go-ahead from firefighters to enter the buildings. The police and the City Council said they were currently unable to confirm how many of the apartments were inhabited.
The council said that four people had died in the fire.
Clouds of black smoke were visible on Thursday evening throughout most of the city, Spain’s third largest, as the fire raged for four hours.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday morning, Carlos Mazón, the president of the regional government, announced a three-day period of mourning. He said that seven firefighters had been injured in the blaze.
Firefighters were able to evacuate some residents as the fire burned. Dramatic footage in the Spanish news media showed one firefighter jumping from the seventh floor to a safety mat on the ground below. Two residents were also rescued from a balcony after becoming trapped by flames.
A 67-year-old man who gave only his first name, Pep, told the Spanish news media on Friday that he had fled his apartment in the complex with his wife shortly after the fire broke out.
“I grabbed my wallet and cellphone, and managed to get out of the inferno,” the man, wearing pajamas and a jacket, said from outside the hotel where he has been temporarily housed.
He said that many of the buildings’ residents worked in two nearby hospitals, and that a family with two babies had not been accounted for.
The police blocked off roads in the area to clear access for firefighters and to avoid injuries from falling chunks of burning material. Local taxi drivers also lined up to offer free transportation for fleeing residents to the hotels that were being used as temporary shelters.
Valencia’s municipal government said in a statement that a relief point had been set up in a nearby building to offer practical and psychological support to surviving residents. Another meeting point was offering information and support for family members of missing people, it said.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the disaster zone on Friday, thanking emergency workers and offering his “solidarity and affection” to the families of the missing and to those who had lost their homes in what he described as a “tragedy.”
“The priority now is the search for victims,” he said.