The Spanish capital’s Samur emergency department “treated twelve people in this incident”, two of whom “died”, one of its officials, Montse Marcos, told reporters.
Of the ten people injured in the fire at the Italian restaurant in the western district of the Spanish capital, six were “transferred to various hospitals in Madrid in a serious condition,” Montse Marcos said, while the other four suffered minor injuries.
According to witnesses cited by the daily El País, the fire broke out when a waiter was burning a dish on his plate. The fire quickly spread through the plants that decorated the establishment.
“One of the servers was going to put the finishing touches on using a blowtorch to set a plate on fire. He held a hot plate in one hand and a torch in the other. He went near the plants and within seconds everything was ablaze,” a customer told the newspaper.
According to Spanish media, one of the dead was a server and the other a customer.
Firefighters pointed out that they were able to intervene quickly as they were 400 meters away from the scene of the disaster and many people ran to warn of the unfolding drama.
A national police inquiry was opened following the tragedy.
