Vladimir Lihvan fled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, hoping to find safety in Europe, only to watch helplessly as his new home was destroyed by a fire that ripped through a high-rise apartment complex in Valencia, Spain, on Thursday, killing at least 10 people. .
Mr Likhvan, 37, his sister Victoria Tudovshi, 42, and her 13-year-old daughter lived in rented accommodation on the 10th floor of the taller of the two buildings destroyed by Thursday’s fire. They had recently arrived in Spain after a year living with relatives in Lithuania.
Like the two or so other Ukrainian families also living in the building at the time of the fire, the brothers had begun building a new life in Spain, away from the dangers and destruction of war. But on the Sabbath, they and many of their neighbors were left without worldly goods except the clothes on their backs. they were homeless, shopping for toothbrushes and other necessities.
Just down the road, local authorities observed a minute’s silence for the victims in front of Valencia City Hall.
“We need help, with documents, with clothes, with money to buy new tools for work,” said Mr. Likhvan.
Initial suspicions as to the cause of the fire fell on construction materials, with investigators trying to determine whether exterior cladding may have contributed to the fire.
For now, survivors of the fire are being offered free accommodation in a city center hotel. A block of 131 apartments, recently purchased by the City Council, will be made available to residents who lost their homes in the fire, according to a City Council announcement.
But outside an old tobacco factory used by the council on Saturday morning to offer practical and psychological support to survivors, it was unclear whether the new housing was being offered for free or not.
Vicente Barberan, 55, who works in catering, is still paying the mortgage on the house that just burned down. “Another mortgage would ruin me,” he said.
Raimundo González, 38, and Virginia Pérez, 35, bought their apartment in 2014.
“We still have 30 years of mortgage” to pay, said Mr. Gonzalez, who works at the Port of Valencia.
On Saturday morning, José Soriano, head of the local bar association, which is organizing an effort to provide free legal advice to victims, said survivors “face many financial and administrative problems, from applying for new passports to resolving what happening in their mortgages.” He added that the National Police offers fast-tracking the replacement of lost identity documents.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, as are the reasons for its rapid spread.
Luis Cedra, dean of the Official College of Architects of the Community of Valencia, reported video to Spanish media of an awning that caught fire on a seventh-floor balcony before the building was engulfed in flames.
“The flames in the awning were blown by the wind against the aluminum sheets on the outside of the building,” Mr Sendra said. “If the temperature had gone up to 400ºC, the aluminum might have cracked and if the insulation inside the sheets was flammable, it would have caught fire.”
Mr Sendra explained that Spanish law allowed the use of flammable materials such as polyethylene for insulation inside aluminum foil until changes were made in 2019 in the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Towers fire in London. Insulation must now be fireproof in all new building projects.
Mr. González and Ms. Pérez, the couple who bought his apartment in 2014, had just returned home from work when the fire broke out. Fortunately, their two-year-old daughter was spending the afternoon with Ms. Pérez’s parents. The couple were alerted to danger when they heard cars frantically chasing down the road outside. Then the lights went out.
The only thing Ms. Pérez, who works at the nearby hospital, had time to grab was her daughter’s carriage.
“I feel bad that I didn’t get her the toys,” she said, breaking down in tears.
As the fire raged, he ran down the stairs to safety. On the street, Mr. González joined other residents in helping a disabled neighbor to safety.
The same terrifying story of narrow escape is told over and over again.
Mr Barderan, 55, who lived alone, is still alive because he went for a run 10 minutes before the fire broke out, he said. On Saturday, he was dressed in a new set of clothes, but still wearing his running shoes.
Ms. Tudovshi worked from home as an online psychologist. Mr. Likhvan as an online marketing strategist. Ms Tudovshi’s daughter was enrolled in a local school and was delighted at the chance to learn a new language and live near the sea in her “dream country”, according to Mr Likhvan.
Mr Likhvan said that just before 5.30pm on Thursday, he had just left the building to drop his niece off at her language lessons when he received a call from his sister, who had stayed at home.
“She said she smelled smoke,” Mr. Likhvan said, speaking for Ms. Tudovshi, whose Spanish is rudimentary. Within seconds, Mrs. Tudovshi knew where the smell was coming from. She turned her phone screen to show her brother an image of black smoke pouring into their apartment.
He told her to run.
Mrs. Tudovshi managed to get out of the building alive. Unable to climb the stairs, which were shrouded in smoke, she had no choice but to take the elevator with their two dogs and three other neighbors, also saving their pets. The elevator stopped working on the first floor. Fortunately, the doors opened.
Ernesto Navarro, 55, a postal worker, was returning from work when he saw the smoke in the distance. Minutes later, realizing his house was on fire, he called his wife, Inajet Rida, and told her to get out.
“I left the apartment in my slippers,” said Ms Rida, who by Saturday morning was wearing a tracksuit and a hat she had picked from charity boxes brought by well-wishers to the hotel where many of the survivors are now staying. .
Not everyone was so lucky.
“We have friends who didn’t come out,” Mr González said solemnly, referring to a couple, their newborn baby and two-year-old child, who were among the dead.
“They were just coming back from giving birth,” Mr Gonzalez said.
