George Mathias
A FIRE broke out in an apartment block in the town of Almoradi in Alicante on Tuesday afternoon trapping residents including young children.
Shocking video footage obtained by the Olive Press shows a child, apparently unaccompanied, on a top floor balcony of the building on Avenida Doctor Marañon as great clouds of black smoke roar out.
The Olive Press spoke to a British expat who didn’t want to be named who was in the building waiting for an eye test.
He was in the waiting room with three others when suddenly they all heard knocking upstairs.
They initially believed they were hearing a huge argument with what sounded like furniture being thrown around.
“Then everyone started shouting ‘Fuego! Fuego!’’” he said.
“We then looked up at the stairwell and saw black smoke and flames. Then everyone started running. I saw a woman with a cat running out and another woman holding her child. Once we got out we saw a guy on the floor of the fire with one leg dangled over the balcony. It was horrendous.”
Once they hurried out of the building, they could only watch as people were screaming and some were seen stranded on balconies next to the blaze.
Police arrived first just before 4:30 before three fire trucks and two ambulances arrived shortly after.
The images were harrowing: “I saw a kid who couldn’t have been older than eight covered in soot and one guy had to be prevented by police from running into the building,” said the man, who lives in Quesada.
Whilst the fire was still blazing through the third floor of the apartment block, the eyewitness saw at least 15 people trapped on the 6th floor of the building.
One 36-year-old man suffered smoke inhalation and was treated by the SAMU medical team before being transferred to the Vega Baja Hospital in Orihuela.
Thankfully after 20 minutes, the fire was put out, having been largely confined to the third floor.
Miraculously, it appears that there have not been any fatalities although the condition of the man in hospital remains unclear.
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