Police rule out explosion in deadly Manlleu fire

Investigators focus on accidental combustion inside a storage room where five teenagers lost their lives.

Generic image of a police cordon with emergency lights in front of a residential building at night.
IA

Generic image of a police cordon with emergency lights in front of a residential building at night.

The Mossos d'Esquadra police force has ruled out an explosion or gas leak as the cause of the fire that killed five young people in Manlleu this Monday.

The main hypothesis suggests the fire started from the combustion of an unidentified object inside a small storage room on Montseny street. The victims, aged between 14 and 18, were using the windowless space as a social gathering spot in the Erm neighborhood.

"It is the blackest, darkest day this town has ever lived through."

Arnau Rovira · Mayor of Manlleu
The local town council has declared three days of official mourning. Forensic units from the Mossos continued their investigation on Tuesday morning to determine why the victims were unable to escape the smoke.