Fire at an asylum of old people in Zaragoza Photo: Marcos Cebrán / Contactophoto / Profimedia
A 93-year-old man died, and 22 people were injured in a fire that took place in an asylum in Zaragoza, northern Spain, informs France Presse.
The fire broke out in a room on the ground floor of the building, during the Friday night to Saturday. There were two men in the room, and one of them died. Unable to move, the man could not leave the room, said the mayor of Zaragoza, Natalia Chueca.
According to the director of the asylum, the fire would have been caused by the overheating of a charger for the battery of a wheelchair.
22 people, including a 46 -year -old man who tried to save the elderly, were transported to the hospital for care as a result of smoke inhalation.
In the asylum of finding 132 people. The employees of the emergency services and inhabitants of the city participated in the evacuation of the residents, some of them being put out the window.
“We saw smoke and decided to intervene. We broke the windows with the hammer, the ax, the chairs, everything we could find. It was scary because the window was very thick and the people inside were already suffocating,” said a neighbor, Jesus Vadorrey, for the Aragon TV station.
Jorge Azcon, the head of the Aragon Regional Government, thanked the passers -by for the support offered. “Without them, I probably cried a lot more victims,” said Azcon.
On November 10, 2024, also in the Aragon region, another fire broke out in an asylum in the city of Villafranca del Ebro, northern Spain, killing 10 people.
The fire broke out at a center for the elderly called “Jardines de Villafranca” around 5.00 local time and it took several hours for firefighters to extinguish it, a regional government spokesman said.
The elderly asylum is about 35 km away from the city of Zaragoza.
