Malaga launches Ibis hotel demolition three months after the fire

Almeria-based demolition company AGI is responsible for the process, which will last two months. The bulk of the demolition work will begin on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

The timeframe may be shorter or longer depending on how the demolition work progresses, given the space constraints and the machinery.

The recycling of the materials as they are removed is also an issue to be taken into account in this type of delicate operation.

One of the busiest roads in the city runs along the hotel: the tunnel beneath the Guimbarda corridor, which extends the route of Avenida de Fátima towards Avenida de la Aurora. In recent days, a new barrier has completely cordoned off the right-hand lane of the tunnel in order to ensure the safety of vehicles.

The false tunnel will remain open to traffic during the demolition. However, the bus lane in the tunnel will remain closed for its first section. Normal traffic flow, including the bus lane, will restore within about two or three weeks.

Calle Padre Jorge Lamothe and a section of Calle Cerrojo will remain closed to vehicle traffic until the work is completed.

The demolition of the Ibis hotel will see the removal of a building that could make way for a new and taller development.

Prior to the fire, the hotel's owners had been processing a town planning application for two years to allow for an increase in the floors of the Ibis and the other two hotels the company owns in the Guadalmedina area: Ibis Budget and Suite Novotel.

A decree the regional government approved in 2021 protects the project. It allows the floor area of existing hotels to increase by up to 20 per cent if this results in an upgrade in category.

The Ibis Centro hotel could have added a further 19 rooms and increased its height by a further three floors.

Consequently, the plan was to increase the number of storeys from ground floor plus three and ground floor plus four to ground floor plus six and ground floor plus seven.

The building replacing the Ibis in the future will be able to have the newly approved height. This is because, as expert sources have pointed out, planning parameters relating to height or volume apply to a plot of land, not to a building.

The fire started at 1.20am on 25 May. A sudden explosion sent a tongue of flame shooting up, triggering the emergency protocol.

The blaze was spectacular, as the recordings of the transport department's CCTV cameras in Pasillo de Santa Isabel show.

It quickly became clear that it was necessary to tackle the flames from the outside to ensure the safety of the emergency services. This, combined with the large number of confined spaces (suspended ceilings) and timber structures, led to the flames reigniting repeatedly.

The building continued burning from within for weeks and it was necessary to carry out some partial demolition work, such as dismantling all the air-conditioning units installed on the roof. Surprisingly, the main steel structure withstood the extraordinary thermal load very well.

The origin of the fire, which repeatedly reignited, is still shrounded in mystery. It sparked reactions from local residents and councillors, who feared for the safety of pedestrians and possible air pollution, which the latest measurements dismissed.

The police have not found any accelerants or similar substances that might have contributed to an even more devastating spread of the flames. There were no anomalies in the materials.

This would confirm the position the city council and the urban planning department have maintained from the outset: that the building complied with all regulations in force at the time the planning permission was granted.

The National Police investigation concluded that the fire had started in the kitchen of the Grand Café restaurant. As it has not been possible to gain access to the exact point of origin, the cause has not been determined and two possibilities are under consideration: an electrical fault (the most plausible) or a reaction between materials.

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