Madrid skyscraper evacuated after fire breaks out on 23rd floor

112 incident

The fire was reported at 5.05pm and started on the 23rd floor. The building was evacuated but three workers were rescued after finding themselves trapped on upper floors

Gerard Couzens / SUR

A fire has broken out at a Madrid business area which is home to the four tallest skyscrapers in Spain.

Witnesses are reporting a large column of black smoke rising from the Moeve Tower which is owned by billionaire Inditex founder Amancio Ortega.

The fire is believed to have started on the 23rd floor of the 49-storey building.

Some witnesses are reporting they heard an explosion before smoke started billowing out of the skyscraper.

A police helicopter has been filmed hovering over the top of the building.

By 6.15pm the fire was officially reported to be under control.

Three people had been trapped on the upper floors but were later rescued and were able to leave the building.

The blaze is being linked to an electrical fault.

Two people are understood to have been treated for smoke inhalation and a third for a panic attack.

Second-tallest building

The Moeve Tower is the second-tallest building in Madrid and all of Spain, surpassed only by the adjacent Cristal Tower which is taller by less than a metre.

The British Embassy offices are in another of the four skyscrapers that make up the Cuatro Torres Business Area.

Amazon also occupies 12 floors of the 49-storey tower where the fire has broken out, owned by Amancio Ortega’s real estate investment company Pontegadea.

Workers who are being evacuated say they are using internal stairs to exit the building.

One said: “There are a lot of police outside.”

Although initial reports pointed to the blaze starting between the 16th and 20th floors, it is now emerging it started on the 20th floor of the skyscraper.

On 12 February 2005 the Windsor Tower, an office building in the financial centre of Madrid, partially collapsed.

Miraculously no-one was hurt in the massive blaze. It was the eighth tallest building in the Spanish capital at the time. It was subsequently demolished.