“There was a lot of smoke, outside too, you couldn’t even breathe,” said Volga Ramirez Gamiz, the mayor of Villafranca de Ebro. She and her husband rushed to the Jardines de Villafranca care home when the fire broke out at around 5 a.m. on November 15. Ten residents died. Two more were critically injured.
“We got everyone out who was alive before the fire brigade arrived,” she told reporters. “Only the dead were left inside.”
One room, then smoke
The fire began in a single room. Gamiz said the room had a security door that kept the flames from spreading, though smoke filled the whole building. A senior firefighter agreed that a fire door had held. Firefighters, who came from Zaragoza, 35 km away, brought the blaze under control quickly and blamed smoke inhalation for the deaths.
Authorities first said 82 people were inside, then lowered the figure to 69 residents and two workers. Aragon government head Jorge Azcon said all the victims were residents, and that the two workers heard the alarm and acted. “I think they did an extraordinary job,” he said. He declared a day of mourning. The 57 residents who survived unhurt were moved to another care home.
Many residents had mobility problems, which slowed evacuation. The mayor said the home held people of many backgrounds and ages. “There are people as young as 25 years old,” she said. “We are not just talking about older people.”
The home and the cause
The residence, in a north-eastern town of about 850 people, opened in 2008 as a home for the elderly. It had recently begun taking in people with mental health problems. A senior figure at the group running it said the fire was probably started by someone smoking. Officials said the cause was still being investigated, and Fernando Beltran, the central government’s representative in Aragon, said a formal investigation would be opened.
Staffing questions
Angel Victor Torres, the minister in charge of cooperation with Spain’s regions, suggested a shortage of staff at the time may have played a part in the death toll. “What we cannot have is cutbacks when talking about the elderly,” he told public broadcaster TVE, “because they have difficulty in any situation to be able to move.”
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was “shocked by the tragedy” and hoped the seriously injured would recover quickly.
Spain has seen other nursing home fires recently. Three people died in one in Madrid in February. In January 2022, six died in a home in Moncada, in the Valencia region.
