Fire in Spanish retirement home kills 10 near Zaragoza

MADRID – A fire erupted on Nov 15 in a home for the elderly and those with mental health issues in the Spanish town of Villafranca de Ebro, killing 10 people and critically injuring two.

The Jardines de Villafranca residence was opened in 2008 as a home for the elderly but had recently started to taken in people with mental health problems.

The authorities said there were 69 residents and two workers inside at the time, revising downward an early figure of 82 people, when the blaze broke out at the facility in the north-eastern town of about 850 residents.

A senior firefighter said a fire door had prevented the blaze from spreading, and one regional official praised the fast reaction of care home staff in evacuating residents.

A senior figure at the group running the home said the fire had probably been started by someone smoking.

“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,” Mr Angel Victor Torres, minister-in-charge of cooperation with Spain’s regions, told Spanish public television TVE.

All of the victims were residents of the facility, said Aragon government head Jorge Azcon who declared a day of mourning.

“I think that the two workers at the residence heard the alarm and acted – I think they did an extraordinary job,” he said.

Ms Volga Ramirez Gamiz, the mayor of the town, told reporters the fire broke out at around 5am 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, Ms 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 said.

“There was a lot of smoke, outside too, you couldn’t even breathe,” she said, explaining that she had rushed to the home with her husband to help with the evacuations.

“We got everyone out who was alive before the fire brigade arrived,” she added. “Only the dead were left inside.”

The 57 residents who survived and were uninjured were taken to another care home.

Lack of staff

Mr Fernando Beltran, the central government’s representative in the Aragon region, told reporters that an investigation would be opened.

Firefighters were able to quickly bring the fire under control. They blamed smoke inhalation for the deaths.

Firefighters – who came from around Zaragoza, a city 35km away – were at the scene with ambulances and the police, the regional government spokesperson said. The cause of the fire was still being investigated.

Mr 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. 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 said.

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, three people were killed by 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. AFP