“I saw flames and thought ‘I’m going to shoot myself'”

The city of Valencia held its breath early Thursday morning after a fire broke out in a building located on Avenida de Francia caused by a scooter.

The fire broke out shortly before 7 a.m. and several fire units and medical services responded to the scene to treat the injured.

According to sources close to the matter, the flames started in a house located on the third floor of this building, located between Avenida de Francia and Calle Bello, and spread quickly.

Apparently the fire was caused by an electric scooter that was charging in a room and police opened an investigation.

During the rescue, there were anxious moments as several neighbors were stuck in their homes waiting to be rescued. Finally, firefighters were able to evacuate the neighbors through the front of the building.

One of these saved neighbors is Claudiea young Valencian woman who was about to jump out of the window because of the proximity of the flames.

“Everything goes through your mind. There was a moment when I was looking down at the firefighters, but they didn’t get me out. I saw flames from my dining room window and I I thought, ‘I’m going to shoot myself,'” he said in statements to the program. Bon Dia of In PuntValencian public television.

Claudia said firefighters were eventually able to enter her home and rescue her. “They passed us in front of another house and we went out through the terrace” he said.

“We opened the door of the house, we couldn’t get out and we entered a room where no smoke or anything was coming in; we were waiting for the firefighters. They arrived very quickly, but I was very nervous”, she declared. admitted this young woman.

Another neighbor of the farm, Eva Ferrerhe explained in statements to Europe Press that they tried to go out onto the common terrace but that, when they opened the landing door, “a cloud of smoke had already pushed me inside”.

“We closed, we put a wet towel on the door, like we had the Campanar incident recently -the tragic fire in which 10 people died-, we closed ourselves and we went out to our private terrace that we have”, he explained

“But about to go up to the community patio, climb up onto our patio, because there was a point where there was a lot of smoke, and we were outside,” he continued.

According to this neighbor, she believes that the windows of the apartments, through the glazing, acted as a fireplace, and she admitted to having been “a little bit horrified”.

In total, firefighters rescued 12 neighbors from homewithout the need to use a stairwell.

During this time, a total of 11 people They had to be treated for smoke inhalation, eight of them were evacuated on site and three others had to be transferred to the Valencia Clinical Hospital in an SVB unit and in a conventional ambulance. They are an 11-year-old boy, as well as a woman and a man, both aged 52.

Three SAMU units, three SVB units and two conventional ambulances participated in the health operation. Around 9:15 a.m., all ambulances had already left the scene of the fire.

The occupants of the house where the fire broke out were taken care of by the Social Emergency Service (SAUS) of Valencia City Hallalthough they did not need their service. The rest of the residents returned home.

Investigation

The guard’s fire chief explained to the media this Wednesday that, based on the information that the tenants of the house concerned gave them, “they point out that it seems that the scooter they were charging had short-circuited, They heard sparks, then an explosion.

When they arrived, they found a fire.”widespread in the habitat“, with a large quantity of smoke, which “had pierced the facade” and generated “confusion on the part of the neighbors due to the size and the large quantity of smoke”.

“When we arrived, we dedicated a team to firefighting tasks and the rest of the staff dedicated themselves house by house to carry out the rescue work.” The affected house was “completely burned” and only one room showed less damage.