Milan: Fire in a 20-storey residential tower block

A 20-storey building in Milan, on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region, burst in flames on Sunday 29^th of August while 30 residents were in their apartments. The fire started on the upper floors of the tower and the flames then spread to the lower levels, causing thick smoke, as the fire services said. The officials had to contact at least 70 families in an effort to make sure no one was missing.

“The firemen are going from apartment to apartment, knocking down doors to make sure no one remains inside,” Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. “But we are optimistic because people had time to get out,” he added.

According to the authorities, about 20 residents suffered slight smoke inhalation. Dozens of ambulances and fire engines arrived at the scene.

They said the flames spread through the cladding on the façade, which was supposed to have been fire resistant, Corriere della Sera reported.

“We had invested everything for that apartment,” one resident told La Repubblica. “Everything we had went up in smoke. We have nothing left.”

Prosecutors in Milan have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fire. According to Carlo Sibia, an Interior Ministry official in Rome, “the rapid spread of the flames was due to the thermal covering of the building”.

Authorities now fear the building is at risk of collapse, due to the high temperatures that could have melted the steel columns.

According to some experts, the facade of the building was built with “inappropriate materials”.

“The facade of the building was built with combustible materials,” Angelo Lucchini, professor of technical architecture at The Polytechnic University of Milan, told. “Unfortunately there is no law that prohibits it.”

The 60-meter tall building was designed to look like the keel of a ship. It included an aluminum sail on its roof, which burned after the blaze, falling in pieces to the street.