Four killed in Spain apartment fire 

At least four people were killed and several others injured or missing after a fire ripped through two residential buildings in the eastern Spanish port city of Valencia on Thursday evening.

The blaze started in a 14-storey apartment block on the outskirts of the city centre and later spread to an adjacent building, engulfing both in flames that sent large plumes of smoke billowing to the sky.

Television footage showed the building's facade ablaze, with burning segments falling to the pavement and small explosions audible inside. Witnesses said the fire, fanned by strong winds, spread to the entire building in half an hour.
 
Residents could be seen calling for help from balconies. A fireman had to jump from the first floor to a mattress below.

Pilar Bernabe, the government representative for the region of Valencia, said it was hard to say how many people were missing because it was “a building with many flats, flats in which there were people of foreign nationality, whose location is more difficult to pinpoint”.

Spain’s Military Emergency Unit also reportedly sent soldiers to the site to aid with the rescue operation and its medics set up a large tent to tend to the injured.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X that he was “dismayed by the terrible fire in a building in Valencia” and that he had spoken to other authorities to offer necessary help.