The fire-damaged building on Maestro Rodrigo was clad with polyurethane, a highly flammable material. This conclusion comes from Esther Puchades, vice president of the Valencia Technical Industrial Engineers College (Cogitival), who assessed the site. The material’s ignition properties helped drive the rapid spread of the flames, turning a small emergency into a large-scale blaze in a short time.
The engineer explains that the building features a protruding, silver-aluminum facade with a 10-centimeter gap between the outer shell and the wall. It is within this air cavity that the polyurethane coating was installed, and it proved exceptionally susceptible to ignition, enabling the fire to engulf the property in roughly an hour.
The structure was erected in 2005, not long before a comparable fire in London that led to a regulatory change the following year. That change banned such materials due to their extreme danger. A large portion of nearby buildings, built during the housing boom, use the same cladding, according to Cogitival’s reporting and observations on the local stock of properties.
Architects consulted for this report also pointed to another deficiency commonly found in the area: the absence of proper compartmentalization. In other words, there was little or no buffering space between floors to hinder flame and smoke from crossing levels. They noted that the fire spread from floor to floor with alarming speed, underscoring how critical proper vertical separation is for fire safety.
The ongoing assessment of the building code and its enforcement in the region has raised questions about retrofitting and the adoption of safer materials in older structures. Industry representatives emphasize that, while modern standards require more robust fire safety measures, many buildings from the same era still present similar risks if premises are not updated to current specifications. Community advocates call for stricter inspections and more comprehensive fire resilience planning to protect residents and property alike.