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A FIRE ERUPTED in a care home in the Spanish town of Villafranca de Ebro today, killing 10 people and critically injuring two others.
The Jardines de Villafranca residence was opened in 2008 as a home for the elderly, but had recently started to also care for people with mental health problems.
Authorities said there were 82 residents and two workers inside when the blaze broke out at the facility in the northeastern town of some 850 residents.
“We must stand with the victims of this regrettable event which has left 10 people dead and two in a critical condition.
“Hopefully these two people will recover,” Angel Victor Torres, the minister in charge of cooperation with Spain’s regions, told Spanish public television TVE.
Volga Ramirez Gamiz, the mayor of the town, told reporters the fire broke out at around 5am local time (4am Irish time) and was concentrated in one room but smoke spread throughout the residence.
“Fortunately that room has a security door,” which prevented the fire from spreading, she said.
There was a lot of smoke, outside too, you couldn’t even breathe.
Many of the residents had “mobility problems” which made it difficult to evacuate them quickly, Gamiz said.
“There are people from all walks of life, with many problems. Very young people, because there are people as young as 25 years old. In other words, we are not just talking about older people,” she added.
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Lack of staff
The central government’s representative in the Aragon region, Fernando Beltran, told reporters that an investigation will be opened.
“The cause of death of each of these 10 people I cannot say yet, because it is under investigation, but in a phenomenon of this nature normally the highest number of deaths is usually due to smoke inhalation,” he said.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Torres suggested a lack of staff at the residence at the time of the blaze may have played a role in the death toll.
It is important “that the residences have a different format, and undoubtedly these are issues that should also make us all think and reconsider”, he said.
“Undoubtedly what we cannot have is cutbacks when talking about the elderly, because… they have difficulty in any situation to be able to move,” he added.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was “shocked by the tragedy”, adding he hoped “the people who are in a serious condition recover as soon as possible”.
Spain has suffered other fires in nursing homes in recent years.
In February 2024, three people were killed by a fire in a nursing home in Madrid, and in January 2022 another six people died in a nursing home in Moncada in the eastern region of Valencia.
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RIP to those lost in this terrible incident.
And RIP to those lost on the latest attack by Israeli forces. Nice of them to throw up a post on X before the obliterated them and their homes…hope their WiFi was working so they saw the warning and managed to gather up their family members and flee in whatever direction. And to the Journal, how dare you even put that rubbish under the headline without calling it out and condemning it for what it is.
@damien leen: Sky News had a special report on the disappearance of doctors over there, last night. They focused on Dr Al-Bursh but there are many others. Everything points to the torture and eventual killing of some of the last people left to help the scores of innocent people, with the most horrific injuries. Often they are there just to try and make their death’s bearable, their injuries are so bad.
Whenever this ends, one thing will never recover – Israel’s reputation and any sort of good standing they had left in the world’s eyes. It’s gleeful at this stage. Pure hatred and conscious obliteration of defenceless human beings.
@SerotoninWars: Israel has made its choice and decided to pursue their course of action to the last drop of blood. Their global reputation will never recover from their actions. It’s baffling considering their history that they don’t see that or don’t choose to see it. When women and children are being pulled out of every bombed building or patients are being burned alive in hospital overflow car parks then either you have a very poor aim or you just don’t care who gets hurt.
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