What began as a fire in the Le Grand Café restaurant in Malaga ended up spreading with unprecedented ferocity to the Ibis hotel. Fortunately, there have been no injuries, but firefighters had to rescue one hotel guest who hadn’t heard the alarm. According to sources, the guest was drunk and sleeping in one of the rooms. During the room-to-room search, firefighters discovered the guest and safely took him out of the hotel before the accumulation of toxic smoke proved fatal. They did so despite the
limited visibility they were working with. Although it was not obvious from the outside, the fire was ravaging the inside of the hotel, which required complete evacuation.The complexity of the operationThe Ibis hotel, built in 1999, underwent renovations in 2014. In order to tackle the severity of the incident, the fire department deployed all firefighters in the city on Monday morning. They worked under extremely adverse heat conditions and “on two fronts”, as spokesperson for Andalusian firefighters Pedro Pacheco said. “First, they extinguished the fire
at Le Grand Café. Other firefighters searched for people in the hotel, which was already beginning to fill with smoke,” Pacheco explained.The fire was out of control and particularly dangerous on the upper floors. The combination of metal beams and wooden materials couldn’t withstand the intense heat. This caused a sudden structural failure. One firefighter nearly fell one floor down when the ground gave way beneath him. “He sank to the ground, his body hanging halfway between the fifth and fourth floors,” Pacheco said.Given the
serious structural damage and the intense heat, the teams reassessed their strategy. “It became clear there was a risk of collapse,” Pacheco stated. That is when they decided to continue the operation from the outside, “spraying a significant amount of water [between 3,000 and 5,000 litres per minute]”. “The interior was all exposed, thousands of square metres of suspended ceilings with wooden floors. Even though that has some fire resistance, it was obviously only a matter of time before it began to collapse, especially due
to the heat load,” Pacheco explained.Assessment and diagnosisPedro Pacheco left the final assessment to the specialists. His experience with these types of incidents, however, paints a very concerning picture of the current state of the Ibis hotel. “It’s an issue that the architects and engineers will have to look into,” he stated.The behaviour of the materials is what most concerns fire professionals, given that “the heat penetrated through the design of the metal and wood structure”. Pacheco explained in detail how extreme heat negates the
stability of these elements. “The moment the beam heats up and deforms, the structure no longer guarantees safety because the welding anchor points have lost their support and resistance. I don’t know if it will be cheaper to reinforce it or tear it down,” he stated.Urban planning councillor Carmen Casero also remains cautious. She stated that, while her department is maintaining constant contact with the fire department, technicians will not begin an assessment until conditions allow.It so happens that the Ibis hotel had a project
to expand vertically , adding three new floors.
Malaga, Ibis hotel, Le Grand Café, firefighters, evacuation, rescue, toxic smoke, structural failure, Pedro Pacheco, Carmen Casero