Fire in Spanish care home kills 10, injures two

Madrid: A fire erupted Friday in a home for the elderly and those with mental health issues in northeastern Spain, killing 10 people and critically injuring two, officials said.

There were 82 residents and two workers inside the Jardines de Villafranca residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro when the blaze broke out, authorities said.

The facility was opened in 2008 as a home for the elderly but had recently started to taking in people with mental health problems.

"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, minister in charge of cooperation with Spain's regions, told Spanish public television TVE.

Volga Ramirez Gamiz, the mayor of the town of some 850 residents, told reporters the fire broke out at around 5:00 am (0400 GMT) 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, adding there "cannot be more bodies" because "everyone" else was evacuated.

"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, said Gamiz.

"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.

Caught in the smoke

The firefighter chief from the nearby city of Zaragoza, Eduardo Sanchez, said many of the residents "were in bed, unable to move," he told reporters at the scene.

"They were caught in the smoke," he said, adding "half of the building was safe from the fire" thanks to the fire door.

The head of the Aragon government, Jorge Azcon, said all of the fatal victims were patients of the residence.

"Many of them have mental health problems, which made the job even more complicated, at an ungodly hour, at a time when most of the residents were asleep," he told reporters.

"I think that the two workers at the residence heard the alarm and acted, I think they did an extraordinary job,' he added.

The ages of those who died are not yet known.

The central government's representative in the Aragon region, Fernando Beltran, told reporters that an investigation would 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.

Lack of staff?

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 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 fire in a nursing home in Madrid, and in January 2022 another nine people died in a nursing home in Moncada, in the eastern region of Valencia.