Twenty-four hours after the residents of the Almuñécar apartment blocks affected by the basement fire were evacuated, all of them are either staying in public accommodation (hotels) or with family and friends. A total of 72 properties were affected.

Electricity has been reconnected but the flats are without sewage disposal and mains water, owing to damage caused in the basement car park. Town-hall workers who moved in this morning to reinforce the ceiling using building joists and wooden beams, finished around midday today, in time for the arrival of experts from the investigations branch of Guardia Civil in Jaén.

Two experts from this department, together with other Guardia Civil officers and the Chief of the Almuñécar Policía Local entered, but moments later only the two experts from Jaén remained, who had requested stronger lighting, which was rigged up immediately.

The 57 residents who requested temporary accommodation from the Town Hall were distributed between Hotel Carmen, which is just across the road from the Edificio Álvarez, and a further 20 at the municipal hotel (old town) and the remaining seven in a municipally owned apartments. The rest of the evacuees opted to stay with family and friends, but where necessary are able to make use of full-board eating arrangements during the time that they are unable to return home.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)