The Violent Crimes Group (DEVI) of the Scientific Police of the National Police will carry out in the next few hours the inspection to hide a police technician from the restaurant in Madrid's Plaza de Manuel Becerra that on Friday night suffered a fatal fire in which two people died and another 12 have been injured, several of them seriously.
This has been indicated by the National Police, whose Salamanca District police station has assumed the investigation of this fire, which started around 11:00 p.m. in the Italian restaurant 'Burro Canaglia Bar
The causes of the fire are being investigated, but the flames spread rapidly through the roof and walls of the establishment. About ten ambulances and toilets from Samur-Civil Protection, Summa-112, Madrid Municipal Police and National Police have traveled to the scene of the event, the aforementioned sources have explained.
To obtain a license, premises must comply with state-level regulations that establish minimum requirements. Although the municipalities can write their own ordinances to expand them.
As stated in the Madrid ordinance, the ceiling and wall covering materials in premises such as the Manuel Becerra restaurant must be "low flammability".
The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, explained that everything was in order "from the point of view of regulations". But the councilor has pointed out that the municipal services are studying "the conditions of the authorization of the license" to verify if "they complied or not with the prescriptions" by including highly flammable artificial plants as decoration.
The materials used in the construction and decoration of the premises also determine the type of smoke that is generated in a fire. The restaurant had artificial plants hanging on the walls and ceiling. Most were derivatives of polyamides that generate cyanide gases.
Like carbon monoxide, cyanide derivatives are deadly gases. Cyanide comes from the combustion, at high temperatures and in an oxygen-poor environment, of natural nitrogenous substances (wood, paper, wool, silk) or synthetic (polyurethane, carpets, resins, plastics, etc.).
Ervigio Corral, manager on duty at Samur-Social, has assured that in a situation like this, in which temperatures exceed 150 degrees Celsius and there are toxic gases such as cyanide derivatives, the absence of emergency and rescue services in a immediately would have meant "the death of all the people who were inside".
According to the municipal ordinance of Madrid, "any building must be designed in such a way that the total evacuation of the foreseeable maximum theoretical occupancy takes place in a time equal to or less than 10 minutes, except in buildings classified as EGA (high-rise building), those for sanitary use with hospitalization, penitentiary establishments and those qualified as non-evacuable.
The text also states that "opposite and remote exits are required when on floors below ground the theoretical occupancy of the enclosure exceeds 50 people and the evacuation height is greater than 2 meters, when the downward evacuation height is equal to or greater than 28 meters and when the foreseeable theoretical maximum occupancy is equal to or greater than 100 people.
In the case of the restaurant that was burned down, it has capacity for one hundred diners. But 40 of them are located on a large outdoor terrace. Hence, as the mayor of Madrid has stated, "both due to the number of diners and its dimensions, "it was not necessary" for the Burro Canaglia Bar
At the time of the events, there were 30 people who were in the premises, including diners and workers.
According to the Madrid City Council Fire Brigade, "the most difficult area was the entrance, because people couldn't get out because the fire was located next to the door, so people went inside and there were some who They got trapped right at the door of the premises".
"Others had the opportunity to hide in the kitchen, crouch down and wait, but the conditions were unfortunate for everyone," said the aforementioned sources.
The arrangement of fire extinguishers or other fire extinguishing systems in public places is determined according to the area of operation. If the place is less than 250 m², it must have two fire extinguishers.
While all areas or premises with a usable area on the floor, equal to or greater than 500 m² or total area
useful area equal to or greater than 2,000 m², they must have fire hydrants in such a number and position that the entire surface area is covered under their action. If it has more than 5000 m², a detection and alarm system is needed.
