Authorizes insurance company experts to enter damaged properties for valuation under the supervision of the Police
The Court of Instruction number 9 of Valencia has agreed to the provisional dismissal of the case opened by the fire of two blocks of flats in the Valencian neighborhood of Campanar, which on February 22 resulted in 10 fatalities and the destruction of 138 apartments. , when the Police ruled out a criminal origin in the fire.
The Provincial Judicial Police Brigade of Valencia of the National Police Corps informed the court this week, on March 6, that the first investigations allow us to rule out the criminal or criminal origin of the fire in the buildings on Rafael Alberi Street, number 2. , From Valencia.
The judge, in view of this information, has agreed to the provisional dismissal of the proceedings, as reported by sources from the Prosecutor’s Office and the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community.
The Court of Instruction has authorized the access of the insurance companies to the damaged property, with police supervision, in order to allow the appropriate steps to be taken to compensate the injured parties, since this measure does not interfere with the police investigations that continue to determine the origin of the fire.
According to the file, to which Europa Press has had access, the instructor, once he received the communication of the fire, agreed to the secrecy of the proceedings in view of the “great social repercussion” caused and to maintain “all caution” to the time to start acting in the “most professional” and “orderly” manner and to protect the practice of all kinds of proceedings.
The magistrate highlights the “still unknown severity” of the fire at that time but that it was already predicted to have “gigantic consequences” as it had “impressive dimensions.” The judge highlights the coordinated work between all those involved in the process to be able to identify the fatal victims and as soon as possible return the personal belongings they were carrying and facilitate the burials, as well as so that those affected could recover their vehicles and what was lost. could recover from the homes.
And once the reports from the Scientific, Judicial and Homicide Police have been received and a “criminal or delinquent etiology” at the origin of the fire has been ruled out – although the causes are followed to determine how it occurred -, the instructor agrees to dismiss the case. provisional of the case and the lifting of secrecy in the absence of the existence of an alleged criminal responsibility that justifies the jurisdiction of an Investigating Judge in criminal matters.
Thus, he adds that although it is true that the court has jurisdiction in civil matters, the investigation in criminal jurisdiction, as is the case of the Investigative bodies, cannot be maintained autonomously only in civil matters without the coexistence of a crime. .
And since there is no evidence to conclude that there is a person criminally responsible for the fire, the final causes, in the field of civil liability if the cause occurred or was determined as a “fortuitous” event, “will have to be promptly resolved outside of this criminal jurisdictional area”.
APARTMENT 86
The fire originated on February 22, around 5:30 p.m., in apartment 86 of one of the two buildings made up of 138 properties that were destroyed by the fire. Barely an hour after the fire started, the flames had devoured the two blocks of flats, 10 and 14 floors, in which about 450 residents lived. As a result, 10 people died and another 15 were injured, including seven firefighters.
As a result of the fire declared in these buildings built in 2009 – a time of the real estate boom – by a developer that went bankrupt, the entire emergency operation was launched – firefighters, police, health workers, forensics – and a case was opened. judicial to investigate what happened and determine the causes of the fire, which spread in record time. Now the court has provisionally archived the proceedings as the Police did not see a criminal origin of the fire.
