Valencia Apartment Block Engulfed in Massive Blaze

Spanish firefighters were battling high winds to put out a huge fire that gutted a multi-storey apartment block in the eastern port city of Valencia, the emergency services said.

At least 13 people have been injured, including a minor and six firefighters, regional officials said, without providing details on the extent of the injuries. The emergency services earlier said seven people were lightly injured, mostly from smoke inhalation.

The fire began around 5:30 pm on the fourth floor and rapidly spread, witnesses and the emergency services said, with images showing flames and vast clouds of black smoke engulfing the building in the Campanar neighborhood in western Valencia.

Spain's TVE public television said there were more than 130 flats in the 14-storey building which was rapidly "reduced to a skeleton", with 22 teams of firefighters battling the blaze.

Speaking to regional television station A Punt, Esther Puchades, deputy head of Valencia's Industrial Engineers Association said the fire had spread so rapidly because the building was covered with highly-inflammable polyurethane cladding.

Writing on X, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was "shocked by the terrible fire" and was in contact with the mayor and the region's leader "to offer whatever help needed" and extending his condolences to everyone affected by the blaze.

In October last year, a fire gutted a nightclub in the neighboring region of Murcia, claiming 13 lives in what was Spain's deadliest nightclub fire in three decades.

Six people have been charged as part of a manslaughter probe and could face up to nine years behind bars if the deaths were found to be the result of negligence.