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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jacob Phillips

Grenfell fire bereaved visit Valencia blaze ruins

Families bereaved by the Grenfell Tower fire have placed flowers at the ruins of a tower block in Valencia after it was destroyed in a fire last week.

The group said there were parallels between the fire in North Kensington which killed 72 people in 2017 and the fire in Spain which killed 10 people as they met emergency responders.

The BBC reports that three people who were affected by the Grenfell fire travelled to the Spanish city to show solidarity to those who died, alongside two people who were impacted by an apartment block fire in Milan in 2021.

Sawsan Choucair whose mother, sister, nieces and brother-in-law died in Grenfell said she faced "the same scene of destruction, the same image, even the same smell of burning plastic”.

She said: "My heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones. It is an unimaginable pain that we experienced, and it never goes away.

"For these Spanish families to experience it now is devastating.

"My greatest fear is who's next?"

Firefighters work at the building after the fire (AP)

A BBC analysis of images of the construction of the building suggest the cladding panels used were made by Spanish company Alucoil.

The broadcaster reports the cladding used on the building may be a type now banned in the UK.

The pictures, retrieved from Google Maps in 2008, show a protective covering marked "Larson".

Alucoil has produced three types of cladding panel and the BBC has not been able to verify which ones have been used in the building.

But Larson PE, one of the cladding panels the company produces, is known to be highly combustible. 

The material was available as late as 2018 after the Grenfell Tower fire.

Larson PE has a layer of polyethylene which is a highly flammable plastic.

Due to changes in the law following the Grenfell Tower fire the product along with a similar product Larson FR would likely be banned for use on many buildings above 18 metres in the UK.

Experts report that a third version, Larson A2, with the highest performance in fire, would not have been on the market in 2008.

The Standard has contacted Alucoil for comment.

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