It was 106 meters distributed in 32 plants, it was built in steel and glass and was the fourth highest skyscraper in Madrid. It was the Windsor building, One of the towers of the Azca business zone, next to the Paseo de la Castellana. Built in 1979 by the architects Genaro Alas and Pedro Casariego, it was one of the most popular skyscrapers of the modest Skyline Madrid 20 years ago … when the flames ended with him. It was February 12, 2005.
After a few minutes of 23.00 of that day the fire alarm was activated with which the windsor was equipped. The security guard who was notice There was smoke. Came from office 2,109occupied by the Auditor Deloitte, the main tenant of the building.
The vigilantes warned the firefighters, which appeared in the immediate vicinity of the Windsor Tower around 23.30. Just when they were preparing to access the interior of the building to reduce the flames, one of the members of the endowment warned that the fire had broken by the facade that gave the Paseo de Castellana. He fire grew and it was dangerous to remain inside of the building due to the risk of roof collapse.
The fire originated on the 21st floor and in its descent reached the 6th. The llamas kept the foundations and the first technical plant intact or lower floor, where the large concrete beams were located from which the rectangular building started.
The demolition began fifteen days later
In a few hours, the flames 15 plants calcined and climbed 106 meters from the skyscraper. The building burned throughout the night until, at 11.00 on Sunday, February 13, firefighters warned that it was controlled, although some spotlights were still active until 1:00 p.m. They were 80 hours of work and six million liters of water, despite the Water pressure problems: There were firefighters who complained that “it cost a lot to [el agua] I reached the hoses. “
In the windsor fire There were no dead or serious injuries. But the strong wind had caused the fall of helps and remains of the structure, so that firefighters determined that the State was “quite unstable.” Although the central nucleus maintained relative stability, There was a high risk of collapse. There was no other than to demolish the black skeleton.
On March 2, demolition tasks began, which lasted for 6 months and cost 17 million euros. The void was occupied, two years later, by the Titania tower, a new skyscraper that the English Court began to build after buying the plot to the Reyzábal family where the windsor was located. They paid 480 million euros.
Why did the Windsor burn?
But why was the Windsor tower pasture of the flames? What was the trigger for fire? Even today, when 20 years of what happened, We continue without exact answers.
The fire investigation fell into the hands of the Court of Instruction number 28 of Madrid, which took almost a year until the dismissal of the case determining that there was no criminal responsibility. According to the judge’s car, Only a fire focus could be determined, the one on floor 21that office 2,109.
That agency was occupied from 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. by a Deloitte employee. Before the magistrate The woman admitted to smoking several cigarettesthe last half an hour before leaving the place. However, the worker of the audit firm defended them out correctly.
An unknown man hours before
This employee did confirm what some tower workers said that night: a unknown person had been within the facilities hours before. The “smoker” explained that he was a man who had never seen and that he was next to the photocopier.
The expert report determined that There were no causes to show “the use of accelerators In combustion anywhere in the property, not attending any indication that allows us to conclude in the intentionality of the fire. “With that base, the judge argued that they did not attend” indications to be able to establish a cause cause between the consumption of cigarettes and the origin or the origin or Fire propagation “. By not finding indications of criminal responsibility, He decided to file the case.
The archive only foster the alternative theories that tried to explain how fire had originated on February 12. The base of many was the Video of that night in which lights of light and shadows were seen of human figures, and that was incorporated into the investigation.
The video with those human figures
The lawyer Carlos Just and his wife Enriqueta Fernández were the ones who recorded the famous images in which the silhouettes are seen (They sold them for 300 euros). Although Reus neighbors spent that weekend of 2005 in Madrid. They were housed at some relatives, near the Windsor.
Two years ago, just commented on Fourth millennium I had the feeling that more could have been done. “They told me they were firefighters and a possibility of investigating. It was as easy as coming to verify and stayed at all, “he told Iker Jiménez.
“I saw people and lights that turned on and off, although in Telemadrid they said the building was evicted. Something I didn’t square,” he explained. Just said he received later “strange calls.”
I saw people and lights that lit and turned off, although in Telemadrid they said the building was evicted. Something did not square “
The truth is that the judge of the case referred to the lights and shadows of the video. He said that “although the possibility of the presence of people inside the Windsor building could be admitted, There was no evidence that this could have had some incidence in the cause or propagation of the fire. “
Another element that demanded answers and that encouraged the elucubrations of their own and strangers was the appearance of A buchrón on the wall of one of the offices located in the garage area that communicated with the interior of the tower. However, the expert report clarified that it was a small hole made in a Pladur panel through which a thin person could hardly pass.
‘The toad’, the thief who says he was the author
Some not only explain what happened in the Windsor but also attributed authorship. This is the case of Jon Imanol Sapieha Candela, better known as ‘El Sapo’, a well -known thief. In the documentary ‘Sapo SA’, which now Four He has issued the second part, he confesses to be the author of the fire.
Sapieha says he burned the building on his commission. “I have a special phone for special calls. A line for orders,” he explains in the documentary. The commission, he says, was “to steal some documents” and “purify” the land so that nothing appears. According to his story, he did it with a team formed by four other people and charged a million euros, more expenses.
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