Spain’s King Felipe VI visited the Valencia apartment block where a deadly inferno killed at least 10 people over the weekend.
The Spanish monarch and his wife, Queen Letizia, were photographed meeting rescuers today in the shadow of the destroyed building that went up in flames on Thursday afternoon.
Fanned by strong winds, the fire quickly spread to adjacent 14- and 10-story buildings, trapping residents inside their apartments.
Firefighters were seen desperately rescuing people from their balconies as the fire raged through the structure in the exclusive Campanar neighborhood of Valencia.
At least 10 people are known to have died so far and experts have suggested that the flammable cladding covering the building could have played a role in the rapid spread of the fire.
King Felipe VI of Spain shakes hands with an emergency worker during a visit to the residential tower
Queen Letizia shakes hands with emergency workers outside the building as Spain reels from the inferno.
The destroyed remains of the building rise into the sky on Monday, three days after it was destroyed in a deadly fire.
At least 10 people have died in the fire that started Thursday afternoon.
King Philip looks at what remains of the building as he visits the site of the deadly fire.
The Kings of Spain visited the site of the fire in Valencia this Monday
It raises parallels with the deadly Grenfell Tower inferno in London in 2017, which killed 72 people when a residential fire was accelerated by dangerously combustible cladding.
The deadly inferno was reported to have consumed the entire building in the space of half an hour, trapping the people inside.
A couple was dramatically rescued by firefighters from their balcony as the flames got closer and closer.
Among the victims known to have died are a family of four, including a newborn baby, a three-year-old girl, and her mother and father.
Photos show a black veil hanging, as a sign of mourning, outside the school entrance last week, and the Spanish Red Cross reportedly sent emergency counselors to the school.
An elderly couple, who have not yet been identified, are believed to have died in the fire while cowering in the bathroom with their dog.
Pilar Bernabé, national government delegate in Valencia, said 10 bodies were found in the first police inspection of the destroyed residential buildings.
He said the bodies matched the list of 10 people authorities had considered missing. Among the dead were a newborn baby and a three-year-old girl.
There was a large crowd of people present when the monarch arrived to inspect the area.
King Felipe shakes hands with a first responder after the deadly fire that killed 10 people on Thursday
King Felipe and Queen Letizia shook hands with members of different emergency services who had helped put out the fire
The King and Queen were photographed holding hands as they were shown the scene of destruction.
The monarch greeted the crowds who lined the streets to see him during the somber visit.
The representative of the delegation, Pilar Bernabé, told journalists that all the people reported missing have already been accounted for and that experts have begun the “complex” task of identifying the dead.
“We will continue searching,” he said, but “the number of victims we have found corresponds to the number of people listed as missing.”
Identification of the victims “will be complicated because they will have to be identified through DNA testing,” he said, in a nod to the sheer voracity of the fire, indicating that it was not possible to say how long it would take.
The fire started around 5:30 p.m. (16:30 GMT) in one of the apartments on the middle floors and within 30 minutes the fire had consumed the entire building, no thanks to the strong winds of more than 50 kilometers ( 30 miles) per hour. which also complicated firefighting efforts.
The heat was such that firefighters could not enter the building and had to work only from the outside, managing to pull a father and his daughter from one of the upper balconies to safety.
They were only able to enter the blackened ruins of the residential block on Friday, with smoke still billowing from its broken windows and the once-white façade charred with the residue of smoke and flames.
Fifteen people were treated for injuries of various degrees, including a seven-year-old child and seven firefighters, but their lives were not in danger.
One of the buildings making up the two-part complex reportedly contained 138 apartments and around 450 residents, with locals staying in hotels until they could move into newly built social housing.
The Valencia complex was completed in 2009. In a promotional video, the now-bankrupt construction company Fbex boasted of having used a new aluminum-based material as part of its façade.
Valencia Mayor MarÃa José Catalá previously said the cause of the fire was still unknown and she could not yet comment on whether some materials used in the construction of the modern complex could have made it worse.
Investigators are still investigating the cause of the fire and how it was able to spread so quickly.
Forecasters said winds of up to 40 mph were reported in Valencia that day, which may have blown the flames along the building.
The fire leveled the two-part apartment complex, which in some places is up to 14 stories high.
A woman places flowers at the site of the fire on Rafael Alberti Poeta Street in Valencia, which occurred on Thursday afternoon
Fire investigators assess the charred hull of the apartment block on Friday after the fire was extinguished.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez (center), visited the site of the tragedy on Thursday.
Neighbor Alejandra Alarcón said it took 15 minutes for the fire to engulf the entire building, as questions abounded about how it spread so quickly.
Experts suggested that a type of cladding could have accelerated the spread of the fire.
The vice president of the College of Industrial and Technical Engineers of Valencia, Esther Puchades, explained to the state agency Efe that the coating used was polyurethane and that when it is heated “it is like plastic and it catches fire.”
He said it was the first fire of its kind in Spain, but other fires involving the material have been equally destructive in the UK and China.
IPUR, Spain’s association of polyurethane manufacturers, issued a statement disputing Puchades’ claim, saying there was no evidence that polyurethane had been used on the façade of the Valencia building.
The June 2017 fire at London’s Grenfell Tower, which had similar cladding, caused 72 deaths.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, visited the site, promising support to those affected and expressing his gratitude to the firefighters and military personnel who worked to extinguish the fire. Pope Francis also sent a telegram of condolences.
Authorities also observed a minute of silence on Saturday to commemorate the victims of the tragedy.