At least ten elderly people died in a fire in a residence in Villafranca de Ebro, in Zaragoza: what is known

Ten people have died and two others have been seriously injured in the early hours of this Friday in the fire at the nursing home Villafranca Gardenslocated in the town of Villafranca de Ebroin Zaragoza, as reported by sources from the Government of Aragon.

After receiving the notification from 112 at 4:57 a.m. alerting of a fire in the Jardines de Villafranca nursing home, the Zaragoza Fire Department went there and, after extinguishing the fire, found ten people dead. and others two injuries, one serious and one in critical conditionwho have been transferred to the Royo Villanova Hospital.

Upon arriving at the residence, where there were 82 people at the time of the fire, firefighters found a fire developing in a wing of the building that generated a large amount of smoke in it, saturating practically the entire premises. After this, they proceeded to extinguish the smoke, extract the smoke and evacuate the elderly from the entire premises to the Advanced Health Post, where several minor poisonings have been treated ‘in situ’.

As reported by the Mayor of the Zaragoza town, Volga Ramírez, the fire originated in a residents’ room. The councilor indicated that, in reality, “there was more smoke than fire”: “you couldn’t breathe, there was a lot of smoke,” she commented in an interview on RTVE reported by Europa Press, who explained that, “luckily” The room in which the fire originated “had a security door.”

Residents will be moved to a residential center of Huesca provisionally awaiting technical reports to determine the damage to the structure of the building. “We are waiting for the municipal architect to arrive but for now they are taking them to Huesca,” Ramírez argued.

At the time of the tragedy, in the residence there were two workers They were the ones who notified 112. “Now all the colleagues have arrived, including those who had a party, and they are inside helping; The inmates are now calm, they have had breakfast and taken their medication,” commented the councilor.

The mayor has expressed her dismay at the tragedy because, as she indicated, the inmates of the residence were known people in the town. “It has been hard to see that people you know have died, and here (in the residence) there are not only elderly people, there are 25-year-old people with mental health problems, who go out to town, walk around and we know them all,” the mayor has indicated.

The troops deployed to extinguish the fire and care for the victims there have been 25 firefightersthree water tanks and a ladder, as well as an ambulance, an advanced medical post and a command vehicle. Later, a bus, a heavy supply pump and a van of supplies were added, as reported by the Zaragoza Fire Department.

Firefighters from the Zaragoza City Council, health personnel from 061, the Civil Guard, as well as Civil Protection volunteers, psychologists and social workers continue to operate there. There are also medical staff of the Alfajarín and Fuentes de Ebro health centers. In addition, the Royo Villanova, Miguel Servet and Clínico Universitario hospitals have been pre-alerted, as detailed by sources from the Civil Guard.

The Minister of Finance, Interior and Public Function of the Government of Aragon, Roberto Bermúdez, and the manager of the Aragonese Institute of Social Services (IASS), Ángel Val, move to the area.

The fire can already be described as the most tragic recorded in senior centers so far this century in Spain. Until this Friday, the most serious event recorded this year in a nursing home in Spain took place on February 18, when three women died due to the fire in the Juan XXIII dependent residence in the Madrid district of Aravaca.

Also in Zaragoza, another fire declared on July 12, 2015 in the private residence “Santa Fe”, in Cuarte de Huerva, 6 kilometers from the Aragonese capital, caused the death of nine elderly people and caused injuries to nine other inmates. In July 2017, the Zaragoza Court sentenced the woman who provoked him to 61 years in prison to express her discomfort at being admitted to the residence.

On January 19, 2022, another nine elderly people died and four were injured in the fire that occurred in a nursing home in Moncada (Valencia), due to a short circuit in a power strip. Five of the elderly died on the same day, while the other four deaths occurred in the following days.

In a fire in a residence in Seville, declared on February 9, 2010, seven residents died and ten were injured in a fire that started shortly before midnight in a nursing home located at number 98 Marqués de Nervión Street. An electrical failure without human negligence was the cause of the accident.

In 2006, on March 28, five people —four men between 30 and 80 years old, and a woman aged 50—, all of them sick, died in the fire that broke out in the San Lorenzo de Brindis nursing home in Massamagrell (Valencia). A short circuit was also the cause of the fire in the center, which housed the elderly and mentally ill.

(News with information from agencies)