Valencia fire : Families bereaved by the Grenfell Tower fire have laid flowers at the building in Valencia that was destroyed in last week’s fatal blaze.
Meeting emergency responders, they said there were direct parallels between the 2017 disaster in London and the fire in Spain, in which 10 people died.
Construction pictures suggest the cladding used on the building may be of a type now banned in the UK.
The manufacturer Alucoil has been contacted for a response.
Three people affected by the Grenfell fire travelled to Valencia to show solidarity to those who died, along with two people who were impacted by a fire at apartments in Milan in 2021.
Sawsan Choucair whose mother, sister, nieces and brother-in-law died in Grenfell said she was confronted by “the same scene of destruction, the same image, even the same smell of burning plastic.”
She said: “My heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones. It is an unimaginable pain that we experienced, and it never goes away.
“For these Spanish families to experience it now is devastating.”
“My greatest fear is who’s next?”
Images of the construction of the building on Avenue del General Avilés, retrieved from Google Maps in 2008, suggest the cladding panels used were made by the Spanish multinational Alucoil.
The pictures show a protective covering marked “Larson”.
Alucoil has produced three types of cladding panel and the BBC has not been able to verify which ones have been used in the building. However, one of the cladding panels it produces, Larson PE, is known to be highly combustible.
It is no longer marketed by the company but, according to marketing materials, it was available as late as 2018, the year after the Grenfell Tower fire.
Larson PE has a layer of polyethylene, a highly flammable plastic.
This product, along with another more fire-retardant version, Larson FR, would likely be banned for use on many buildings above 18m in the UK today, due to changes in the law following the Grenfell Tower fire, though the new rules are complex.
Experts say a third version, Larson A2, with the highest performance in fire, would not have been on the market in 2008.
In a video of the early stages of the fire, the flames are spreading in a similar way to those in the Grenfell disaster. The fire is moving up and down the edges of the cladding panels.
The Larson PE product is similar to Reynobond PE, the cladding blamed for allowing the Grenfell fire to spread so quickly. Both have been given, in some tests, a European classification of E for reaction to fire.
The ratings go from A1, which is best, to F.
Products with an E rating make a “high contribution to fire” according to the European standard.
Death toll in Valencia fire rises to 10 as remains of last missing person found
The death toll from a fire that left two residential buildings charred ruins in the Spanish city of Valencia rose to 10 on Saturday after authorities announced they had located the remains of what they believed to be the last missing person.
Forensic police found the 10th victim inside the building, the national government delegate in Valencia, Pilar Bernabé, told journalists. Police would proceed with DNA testing to confirm the identities of all the victims, she said.
Although there were no other missing people reported, Bernabé said police and firefighters would continue the complex work of combing the debris in search of any other possible victim.
It was not immediately known how many people were in the two buildings when the fire broke out, but the complex had about 140 apartments.
The blaze that appeared to begin in one home on Thursday afternoon engulfed the rest of the 14-story apartment block in less than an hour, raising questions about whether construction materials used on the facade may have contributed to the fire spreading so rapidly.
Neighbours described seeing the rapid evolution of the flames, with residents stuck on balconies and children screaming. Those left homeless by the fire, including many Ukrainian refugees, were initially given refuge in city hotels but were expected to be moved to other accommodation over the weekend.
