Three generations of same family die in tower block blaze on Spain's Costa Blanca

A serious fire at a block of flats in Villajoyosa in Spain this Monday morning (4 March) has ended in tragedy. Flames from the blaze gutted a property on the 11th floor and killed three people, all of them from the same family: the grandmother, father and the youngest son, aged five. In addition, up to 15 people were injured in the incident, according to the Alicante region's Emergency Information and Coordination Centre (CICU).

The fire broke out in a 24-storey building located in the La Cala area of Villajoyosa. Due to the intensity of the flames, around 100 people had to be evacuated from the property, although many others were confined to their adjoining homes, the Alicante Provincial Fire Brigade Consortium (CPB) explained.

The raging fire, which broke out on the 11th floor of this large 24-storey building, affected common areas including the landings and forced the fire brigade to order neighbours near the affected property to confine themselves to their homes.

This was the case of Ronela, a resident who lives just two doors away from the affected flat. The woman told TodoAlicante how she was "very scared" during the fire and said that there was "a lot of smoke and it was impossible to get out because of the flames". Finally, once the fire was out, the firefighters were able to rescue her.

The same fear was felt by Marina Costa and Daniel Serrano, who were evacuated from the block. Marina explained that they woke up to the screams and the light from the fire and quickly went down to the street. Both insisted that the fire brigade came "very quickly" and at five o'clock in the morning they were able to start going back up to the flats and sleep "peacefully".

The president of the Diputación de Alicante, Toni Pérez, together with the mayor of La Vila, Marcos Zaragoza, attended the scene. Speaking to the media, Pérez regretted the loss of life caused by the fire and highlighted the "diligent action that allowed the fire to be practically confined and that only affected one property".

The president of the provincial authority has assured that thanks to the rapid action of the fire brigade and emergency services in the middle of the night "there has been no damage, beyond some areas of the landing, to the infrastructure of the building itself".

The mayor said that the causes are being clarified to find out "if the building needs to be checked", but insisted that the proper functioning of the fire systems and the concrete façade prevented a disaster like the recent one in Campanar (Valencia).

Zaragoza admitted that he spent the whole night thinking about the tragedy in Valencia. "Campanar came to mind", but because the fire was so localised and the quick action and the concrete façade helped to avoid a major incident.

The blaze broke out at around 2.15am this Monday morning. The CICU received a call about a fire in a building in Avenida Marineros, in the area of La Cala de La Vila. Although firefighters managed to stabilise the fire at 3.32am it was not until later in the morning that the intervention of the emergency services was completed.

The fire that affected the property also left 15 people intoxicated by the smoke, and all of them, except one man, had to be taken to the Marina Baixa hospital to be treated for the inhalation of gases from the fire, although sources say they have all since been discharged.

Following the emergency alerts, a SAMU unit, a Basic Life Support unit and two conventional units were sent to the scene to attend to the injured. The medical services treated 15 people for smoke inhalation, seven of them women aged between 24 and 67 and the rest men aged between 13 and 57.

At the moment the Guardia Civil is investigating the cause of the fire, although there is no clear theory about its cause.