SATURDAY is the first anniversary of the fire that devastated an apartment block in the Campanar district of Valencia- leaving 10 people dead and 138 properties destroyed.

Five months of work to clean up the complex was finished in late January and reconstruction is expected to start before the summer.

Investigations into the cause of the blaze have been complex and hindered by crucial evidence being lost during autumn’s floods.

FIRE AFTERMATH

The biggest-ever building fire in the Valencian Community started shortly after 5.30pm on February 22, 2024 in apartment 86.

Police science experts said the cause was a small leak of refrigerant gas in the condenser of a kitchen fridge.

Within 30 minutes and fanned by strong westerly winds, the flames spread across the facade of the two towers of the building.

The speed of the blaze that ignited the facade, clad with aluminium panels with a low-resistance polyethylene core, created much concern in the days and weeks afterwards.

The regional government and Valencia City Council took over a building for six months so that 131 affected families could stay in it free of charge, as well as recieving aid and getting new documents.

Debris removal started in early September across the fire-hit block’s 14 floors at a cost of €1.5 million paid by insurers.

The drafting of the reconstruction project has cost €1.1 million.

Rebuilding- also paid by insurers- will cost around €30 million and take up to 18 months to be completed.

A Valencia court agreed last June to reopen a judicial investigation into the fire, which another court had provisionally shelved three months earlier.

That came after an appeal made by relatives of a family of four that died in the blaze.

The probe has been complicated by the fact that the October 29 floods destroyed evidence like the compressor motor of the refrigerator as well as remains of the exterior cladding of the building.