A real drama. A fire in a retirement home in Villafranca de Ebro, a town in northeastern Spain, left ten people dead and two seriously injured this Friday morning, according to authorities and emergency services. “At least ten people died in the fire in a retirement home” which “occurred at dawn” near Zaragoza, the capital of the Aragon region, emergency services said on X ( ex-Twitter).
According to the authorities, the fire broke out around 5 a.m. in a retirement home in Villafranca de Ebro, a town of 840 inhabitants located in the heart of the Aragon region. The cause of the incident is not yet known. A total of 71 people were in the residence, called Jardines de Villafranca, when the fire broke out. According to the Minister of Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres, the disaster left “10 dead and two injured”, hospitalized “in critical condition”.
“When we arrived, the evacuation of residents had already started. We completed this evacuation and extinguished the fire,” Eduardo Sanchez, head of fire and civil protection in Zaragoza, told journalists.
The origin of the disaster unknown
The mayor of Villafranca de Ebro, Volga Ramirez Gamiz, said the fire apparently started in a resident’s room. According to the first elements of the investigation, it was a mattress which could have caught fire, she said on Cadena Ser radio. “It was probably caused by someone who smoked in their room,” explained the head of the association managing this residence, Paquita Morata. “I cannot yet say what is the cause of the death of each of these 10 people, because it is the subject of an investigation,” assured the government delegate in Aragon, Fernando Beltrán, interviewed by journalists at the scene of the disaster.
“But in a phenomenon of this nature, the majority of deaths are generally due to smoke inhalation,” he added, specifying that the residence accommodated people suffering from “reduced mobility or a pathology. During the fire, the victims “were in their beds, unable to move. They were caught in the smoke,” confirmed Eduardo Sanchez, specifying that the area where the fire broke out had a fire door, thanks to which “half the building was safe”.
According to authorities, the residents were transferred to other facilities. If the causes of the fire were not yet known this Friday morning, the possible lack of staff in this establishment was highlighted by the authorities, who indicated that only two employees were on site at the time of the disaster. Questioned by public television TVE, Ángel Víctor Torres refused to comment, assuring that the investigation should clarify the circumstances of the fire. What is certain is that “there can be no” budgetary “cuts” when it comes to elderly people,” he said.
In a message on X, the president of the Aragonese region, Jorge Azcón, said he was “shocked” by this “tragic fire”. “My deepest condolences to the families of the deceased,” he wrote. “Dismayed by the tragedy that occurred this morning in a retirement home in Zaragoza,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
According to its website, the Jardines de Villafranca residence was inaugurated in 2008. This retirement home had recently specialized in welcoming elderly people with mental health problems.
Several tragic fires have already occurred in recent years in Spanish retirement homes. In January 2022, six elderly people died while sleeping in a medical residence in the town of Moncada, near Valencia. And last February, three people died in a fire at a retirement home in Madrid.
