At least 13 injured as huge fire destroys block of flats in Valencia

At least 13 people were injured in a major fire that has destroyed a block of flats in the Spanish coastal city of Valencia, the emergency services said on Thursday.

Six of those hurt were firefighters combatting the fire that broke out, the first responders said in a post on X, adding that no one had died.

The fire broke out in a flat on the fourth floor of the 15-storey building and spread rapidly through the tower block.

Two people trapped in the building were brought to safety by the fire brigade as flames drew closer to them, images showed on television.

Someone living in a building nearby drew attention to their plight, saying he saw them on a balcony calling for help, in a telephone interview with state television channel RTVE.

A resident from the building told RTVE apart aside from the two who were rescued, all of the other residents had been able to leave the building in time.

The authorities ordered a field hospital to be set up as a precautionary measure, La Vanguardia newspaper reported.

Soldiers from the military emergency aid unit UME have also been called to help fight the fire, RTVE reported. The UME is usually deployed to fight major forest fires.

There are 138 apartments in the tower block. Images shared on social media showed how flames climbed the façade of the relatively new building which was ablaze from the ground floor to the roof.

The façade was made of aluminium panels with a layer of flame-retardant rigid polyurethane foam underneath, according to a specialist interviewed on television.

Parts of the material could be seen falling into the building which continued to burn.

The emergency services deployed 16 fire engines to the scene.

A huge cloud of black smoke rose above the building and the fire was fanned by powerful winds.