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FIRE

Fire in Spain’s Alicante kills two adults and young child

A fire that broke out in a building in the Alicante province town of Villajoyosa has killed a family of three, including a five-year-old boy, just ten days after the huge blaze in an apartment block in Valencia.

Published: 4 March 2024 09:47 CET
Fire in Spain's Alicante kills two adults and young child
The blaze in Villajoyosa follows another deadly fire in Valencia two weeks earlier. Photo: Wikipedia

Some 120 people were evacuated following the fire in Villajoyosa, a town on Spain’s eastern coast close to Benidorm with a large foreign population.

Fifteen lightly injured people were taken to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation, police told AFP.

Early reports point to the casualties being an elderly woman, her son and her five-year-old grandson.

The young boy’s body was found hugging his pet dog, which also died in the fire. 

The fire, which started at around 2:15 am (0115 GMT), was brought under control by 4:00 am.

Villajoyosa mayor Marcos Zaragoza said that the blaze that took place high up in an apartment in a 24-storey building was “a terrible tragedy”, and that even though emergency service were quick at the scene, they were unable to prevent the death of the family.

Police said it was not immediately clear what caused the blaze although media reports spoke about an overloaded plug socket.

The blaze erupted less than two weeks after another fire killed 10 people in the port city of Valencia in the same region, in a tragedy that shocked the country.

The fire in Valencia devastated a 14-storey high-rise building and an adjoining 10-storey block which together housed 138 flats.

Experts said the building was covered with highly flammable cladding, which could account for the rapid spread of the blaze.

It prompted worried property owners to seek expert advice to ally fears that their own homes could be at risk.

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TOURISM

Valencia to crack down on tourist flats in historic old town

After news that Barcelona intends to phase out 10,000 tourist rental flats by 2029, the city of Valencia has started the process of banning new 'pisos turísticos' in the historic old town.

Published: 24 June 2024 10:25 CEST
Valencia to crack down on tourist flats in historic old town

Valencia city council last week unanimously approved plans to crackdown on the use of residential properties as tourist housing in the historic centre, known as the Ciutat Vella or ‘old town’.

This includes the popular neighbourhoods of Velluters, Pilar, Mercat, Carmen, La Seu and part of La Xerea. These central areas have the greatest concentration of tourist rental flats in the city, and council estimates suggest that 10 percent of all residences there are now holiday homes.

This follows news last month that the council would stop issuing new licences to Airbnb-style lets for a year, with the possibility to extend the measure, as rents surge past €1,000 in the city.

According to figures reported by Spanish daily El País, more than 3,500 tourist flats have opened in Valencia in the last year alone. However, in Valencia and cities across Spain, there are also many thousands of unlicensed tourist properties. It is unclear how exactly these flats can be properly regulated.

READ ALSO: Barcelona to get rid of all tourist rental flats ‘by 2028’

In Valencia problem is such that all political parties in the city, including the right-wing Partido Popular and Vox, as well as left-wing parties Compromís and PSPV, voted in favour of starting the process, which will take more than a year.

It comes amid a wave of crackdown on tourist rentals across Spain. In Barcelona last week, city mayor Jaume Collboni shocked many by announcing that the local government intends to ‘eliminate’ 10,000 tourist apartments in the Catalan capital by 2029. These apartments, he said, would be converted into much needed affordable housing for locals.

Surging rent prices are a problem in cities across Spain. In Valencia, the council authorities seem to have taken inspiration from Barcelona and pledged to try and create “a model similar to that of Barcelona… so that, within four years, we can begin to eliminate all the tourist flats in our city and convert them into residential housing”.

The council also wants to ban tourist flats in residential buildings entirely in the old town. “We want it to be a residential neighbourhood,” said city councillor for urban planning, Juan Giner, “and for this reason we have proposed that it is not compatible and no new tourist flats will be opened in the buildings where locals live.”

The proposals, however, would not be a total ban and do include an important exception: that new tourist accommodation will still be allowed in the old town when it is an exclusive use building (that is to say, without any residential housing) and only in the San Francesc neighbourhood and in a small part of La Xerea.

Equally, tourist properties that already have the proper licences or authorisation will be able to continue to operate, but the council’s plans mean that no new licences will be issued in the near future and no new tourist flats will be opened in residential buildings in the old town.

READ ALSO: ‘It’s become unliveable’: Spain’s Málaga plans protests against mass tourism

Anti-tourism protests have gained momentum across the country in recent months, with locals taking to the streets in Barcelona, Madrid, the Canary and Balearic Islands, and further walkouts planned in Málaga at the end of June.

Locals complain that the increasing numbers of Airbnb-style rental accommodation decreases the supply of affordable, residential housing, drives up rental prices, gentrifies local neighbourhoods and prices out locals.

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