Izuchukwu Okosi
La Liga side Valencia on Friday requested for Saturday’s league game against Granada to be postponed after a deadly fire rocked the city 24 hours earlier.
Four people were reported to have been killed in Thursday after the fire engulfed two apartment blocks in the Spanish city with up to 15 people missing.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelValencia await a decision from La Liga noting that the club are “devastated” by the fire incident.
“We offer our help to institutions and emergency services for any need that they may have,” the club added.
The men’s, women’s and academy squads held a minute’s silence before their training sessions on Friday morning and the club will fly flags at half-mast at their facilities.
Valencia sit eighth in the La Liga table, four points behind Real Sociedad in the final European qualification spot.
Firefighters were called at about 4.30pm to the incident, with emergency services rescuing several residents from their balconies using cranes.
More than 20 fire crews tackled the blaze, which was made worse by high winds.
Fifteen people, including six firefighters and a young child, were injured in the fire but their lives are not in danger.
Writing on X (formerly known as Twitter) Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said:
“Dismayed by the terrible fire in a building in Valencia… I want to convey my solidarity to all the people affected and recognition to all the emergency personnel already deployed at the scene.”
Experts say highly flammable cladding on the building enabled the fire to spread rapidly.
A three-day period of mourning has been declared in the Valencian region.
