1 killed, 11 hurt in Guadarrama apartment block fire near Madrid
A fire in a ground-floor flat in Guadarrama, Madrid region, killed 1 person, a 62-year-old man, and injured 11 others, including 4 children, emergency services said.
A fire in a ground-floor flat in Guadarrama, near Madrid, killed 1 person, a 62-year-old man, and injured 11 others, four of them children, Madrid's emergency service 112 said on Sunday.
The blaze broke out shortly before 6:05am in a four-storey apartment block at Calle Nuevo Guadarrama 26, a spokeswoman for the regional emergency service told the EFE news agency. The fire started in a ground-floor living room and filled the building's stairwell with smoke.
Firefighters sent nine engines to the scene and had to rescue 3 people trapped by the smoke, including the man who later died, as well as 2 dogs, fire officer Justo Fernández said. The man was in cardiac arrest from smoke inhalation when crews reached him and could not be revived despite attempts to resuscitate him.
Of the 11 injured, 2 were in serious condition: a 50-year-old woman and a girl reported as 11 years old, both taken to La Paz hospital, emergency officials said. The remaining 9 were treated for smoke inhalation with minor injuries, SUMMA 112 duty chief Nuria Arroyo said.
Firefighters checked 12 flats affected by smoke and a further 4 that were closed, with no indication anyone was inside, officials said. Spain's Guardia Civil opened an investigation into the cause of the fire and local police also responded at the scene. The fire was later extinguished and all affected flats were ventilated by crews before residents were allowed to return.
Follow this story
An email when there is a real update (a new toll, a cause, an arrest). Nothing else; stop with one click.
Free: one story at a time. Members follow as many stories as they like.
What we know
- 1 outlet · ABC A 62-year-old man died of smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in a ground-floor flat in Guadarrama, Madrid region, emergency services said.
- 1 outlet · La Voz de Galicia 11 other people were injured, 4 of them children; 2 were in serious condition and taken to La Paz hospital.
- 1 outlet · EFE Nine fire crews rescued 3 people, including the man who died, and 2 dogs from the smoke-filled stairwell.
- 1 outlet · ABC The fire, reported shortly before 6:05am, was extinguished; Guardia Civil is investigating the cause.
Not yet confirmed
- Unconfirmed One source gave the dead man's age as 60 rather than 62, and the injured girl's age as 12 rather than 11; the figures used here are those on which two independent sources agreed.
How each fact is established: Verified checked by an ECTV editorOfficial stated by an official body2+ outlets reported independently by two or more news organisations1 outlet reported by a single news organisation so farUnconfirmed claimed or reportedHow we label facts
Figure history
PremiumSee how the 2 casualty figures in this story changed, when, and who gave each number.
Why it matters for Europe
The fire filled the building's only stairwell with smoke within minutes, trapping residents on upper floors and forcing firefighters to carry people and pets out through the smoke-logged exit. It shows how quickly a stairwell fire can cut off a block's main escape route for residents above the floor where it started. Guadarrama is a commuter town in the Sierra de Guadarrama, north-west of the Spanish capital, and the affected block houses several dozen residents across its four storeys. Emergency crews from the Madrid region, the Red Cross and Guadarrama's civil protection service all took part in treating those caught up in the fire, alongside the Guardia Civil officers now investigating how it started.
Sources
Reported by 3 reports from 3 independent outlets in 1 countries.
- EFE: Un fallecido y once heridos al arder un bloque de viviendas en Guadarrama (Madrid)
- La Voz de Galicia: Un fallecido y once heridos, cuatro de ellos menores de edad, al arder un bloque de viviendas en Madrid
- ABC: Un incendio en el salón de un bajo mata a un hombre de 60 años y hiere a otras 11 personas en Guadarrama
Source balance
PremiumSee how the 3 outlets behind this story spread from left to right, and which are official or OSINT sources.
Intelligence file
PremiumSee how we verified this story
Confidence and impact scores, the full situation report and the event timeline.
Questions and answers
- Where did the fire happen?
- In a four-storey apartment block at Calle Nuevo Guadarrama 26 in Guadarrama, in the Madrid region.
- How many people were killed and hurt?
- A 62-year-old man died and 11 others were injured, four of them children, emergency services said.
- What caused the fire?
- The cause has not been determined; Spain's Guardia Civil is investigating.
This article was written with AI assistance from 3 verified reports and checked under the ECTV editorial policy. Spotted an error? Request a correction.