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A cat given up for dead by its owner following the devastating Valencia apartment block inferno has been rescued alive by firefighters after eight days in the shell of the building.
Andrea Rubio broke down in tears yesterday as she cuddled beloved pet Coco for the first time since the February 22 disaster after it was spotted two floors above their 11th floor flat smelling of smoke but otherwise alive and well.
Mystery still surrounds her pet’s survival of the tragedy that killed 10 people and claimed the lives of around 100 other animals.
Coco will spend tonight with Andrea and her partner Javier Fernandez at emergency council-provided temporary housing after a routine check-up by a vet.
Firefighters published pictures of Coco inside a fire hydrant niche where the cunning cat is believed to have taken refuge.
They had been asked by its owner to recover its body if they found it while retrieving documentation and other belongings from gutted apartments.
Smoke rises from a fire of a 14-story residential building in Valencia (Picture: EPA)
Two people take shelter from the fire on one of the terraces of the burning building (Picture: Getty)
Andrea hugs Coco after they were reunited (Picture: Policia Local Valencia)
A spokesman for Valencia City Hall-employed fire crews who are still working in the 14-storey residential that went up in flames in the affluent El Campaner district said: ‘We were recovering belongings and documentation from apartments when we rescued the cat. It was in a dry riser niche.
‘We’ve handed it to its owners with great satisfaction.’
A local police spokesman added: ‘We can confirm a pet cat lost in the fire in El Campaner has been recovered more than a week after the tragedy.’
Andrea, pictured taking her cat out of a small holdall and giving it water while she cried, was out when the fire started and only learned her home had gone up in flames from her mum who was watching the disaster unfold on TV.
A spokesman for an animal adoption association in Valencia said this morning: ‘Coco’s family lived on the eleventh floor and had asked firefighters to look for it in case they found its body.
‘They informed them the animal wasn’t in the property but the surprise arrived when they reached the 13th floor and found Coco waiting for his family.
‘We don’t know how you managed to save your life Coco but you’re a champion and we’re very happy.’
Owner Andrea holds Coco the cat after firefighters found it in the burned building eight days later (Picture: Reuters)
It emerged at last weekend nearly 100 pets had died in the Valencia fire as well as 10 people including a family of four consisting of the parents of a new-born baby and a three-year-old boy.
The animals that died included the pet dog of a Ukrainian woman called Elisa who went to run errands with her partner and wasn’t able to return home after the blaze began.
An elderly couple who lived in one of the 138 apartments gutted by fire died along with their pet dog.
The cladding around the apartment blocks has been blamed for the speed with which the blaze spread and meant the victims weren’t able to reach safety in time.
An investigation into the fire, which started in an empty eighth-floor flat, is ongoing but it has already been linked to a probable electrical fault.
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