In every tragedy, a hero emerges. The rapid and devastating fire at a fourteen-story residential building in Valencia, which spread to an adjacent annex and claimed four lives while leaving nineteen people unaccounted for, has shaken the Nou Campanar district, a zone of wide avenues and shopping and leisure spaces to the city’s northwest. This fire marks Valencia’s worst housing disaster in its history.
At the moment the blaze began, around five thirty in the afternoon, the building at the corner of General Avilés and Maestro Rodrigo, Julián’s building, housekeeper for the burned complex, moved through each floor to alert residents in the 138 homes. Julián put his life at risk to wake neighbors and shepherd them outside, urging them to descend to the street quickly to save many lives. Witnesses recalled that he went door to door to evacuate residents.
Midfire phase
Por el momento se desconoce el origen del incendio aunque los bomberos apuntan que comenzó en la quinta planta y se propagó rápidamente a las plantas superiores; en apenas media hora prácticamente todo el edificio estaba en llamas o sumido en una densa humareda.
Officials have not yet determined a definitive cause. Firefighters have suggested the blaze began on the fifth floor and climbed quickly to the upper levels, leaving the building engulfed in flames or thick smoke within about thirty minutes.
Emergency response and casualties
It was not until after midnight that authorities confirmed the worst fears. Drone footage helped locate four fatalities, while nineteen people remain unaccounted for and are not expected to be found alive by rescuers.
Road closures and ongoing response
Throughout the night, emergency services have continued to work on extinguishing the flames. By early morning the fire had largely diminished, the area remained cordoned off, and traffic was blocked. Firefighters continue working in shifts to cool the building’s exterior as interior access remains unsafe, while teams search for additional potential victims.