Fire at Spanish retirement home kills at least 10 people

At least 10 people died in a fire at a retirement home in Spain before firefighters managed to extinguish it, local authorities have reported.

Authorities were alerted to the blaze early on Friday morning at Villa Franca de Ebro, around 30 minutes from the north-eastern city of Zaragoza.

The cause of the fire was not yet known, local media reported.

Local media said 82 people had been living in the retirement home, which focused on treating people with dementia and mental health issues.

Volga Ramirez, mayor of Villafranca de Ebro, told reporters outside the centre on Friday morning that intense smoke from the blaze was likely responsible for the deaths.

“It is due to smoke inhalation,” Mr Ramirez said, “not because they were burned.”

Jorge Azcon, head of the regional government of Aragon, whose capital city is Zaragoza, confirmed the deaths and said on X, formerly Twitter, that all government events in the region were cancelled for the day.

He told reporters outside the retirement home that an investigation would be opened into the cause of the fire.

For now, the priority was to transfer the remaining uninjured residents to other facilities, he said, including one in the city of Huesca, about 90 kilometres (56 miles) away.

Zaragoza fire chief Eduardo Sanchez told reporters that firefighters had extinguished a blaze in one room of the retirement home.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X that he was “shocked at the tragedy” and expressed condolences to the victims.

The fire took place just weeks after devastating flash floods in Valencia killed more than 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

The floods were the worst natural disaster in Spain’s recent history.