Burning building might collapse
2005-02-13 12:11
Madrid - A pall of brown smoke dominated Madrid's skyline early on Monday as officials said that a 31-floor building in a central neighbourhood could collapse after the biggest fire in the Spanish capital's history.
As firefighters tried to prevent the continuing blaze from spreading to nearby structures, Madrid Mayor Alberto Riuz Gallardon said the situation remained "high risk", as the inner structure of the huge building was not known.
Earlier Alfredo Prada, deputy leader of the Madrid regional government, told Spanish national radio that the building "may collapse... we don't know how things will pan out".
With the exception of three firefighters who were affected by fumes, nobody was known to have been hurt in the fire at the Windsor Tower, which was believed to have started accidentally due to a short circuit.
However, rescue services evacuated dozens of families living nearby as large chunks of debris from the upper floors, where the fire broke out shortly after 23:00, crashed to the ground overnight. About half of the floors were engulfed by smoke and flames.
Spanish media said it was believed that nobody had been in the tower when the fire broke out on on the 21st floor. The structure was still burning internally on Sunday morning, with flames visible.
Might have been caused by short circuit
"The cause appears to have been a short circuit," emergency services spokesperson Javier Ayuso told reporters.
Some residents were fearful that the city, scene of a series of devastating train bombings which killed 191 people last March, might have been attacked again.
"It immediately reminded me of the attack on the twin towers" in New York in September 2001, one onlooker told a reporter.
The conflagration brought severe disruption to early morning public transport in the city, with three metro lines suspending services in the area affected while roads in the vicinity were cordoned off.
The 106-metre high building, on Castellana Avenue in the heart of the city's financial district, was completed in 1979 and is one of the most familiar landmarks on Madrid's skyline. It had been undergoing renovation since mid-2003, which was largely completed last November, although a crane still stood over the building.
The skyscraper is next to a large outlet of the El Corte Ingles supermarket chain.
The Spanish capital has seen several other major fires in recent years.
In the worst incident, in December 1983, more than 80 people died in a blaze at a discotheque.
- AFP