“When we jumped from our apartment onto a balcony and saw the flames around us, that was the moment we thought we were going to die there.”
Portuguese Sara Jorge was, along with her boyfriend, the last couple to be rescued by firefighters in the tragic fire that devastated a 14-story apartment block in the Spanish city of Valencia on Thursday.
“But I told my boyfriend, ‘I refuse to die.’ What surrounded us told us that it could happen, but I knew that it was not our time,” the young woman tells the BBC.
This 26-year-old woman and her Belgian boyfriend are the couple who appear in the dramatic video of the rescue from Thursday’s fire in Valencia, in which they are saved by firefighters while the flames rage around them while, below, spectators They applaud what appears to be a miracle.
We spoke with her at the hotel where they were transferred, in her first interview with an international journalist.
Sara and her partner were working in their apartment in the Spanish coastal city when they started hearing sirens. A fire had broken out in the adjacent building, 14 stories high.
Within minutes, fire had engulfed the tower. Their block was connected to the burning building by a bridge, so the fire soon spread to their building as well, where they lived on the eighth floor.
“At first we thought it was something minimal because we didn’t see smoke,” he remembers.
“We opened the door and a neighbor told us to go down to the street. So we picked up some things but when we were leaving, the two girls who lived across the street They told us that everything seemed to be under control and that we should stay home. So we went back in. It was very stupid. Shortly after, we started to see the smoke,” he adds.
When they decided to leave, the building was already being consumed by the fire and they could not move down the hallway.
The wind, which was blowing at about 60 km/h, had changed direction and was fanning the flames towards their part of the building. Then they jumped onto a side balcony.
“We refused to hug each other because that was a sign of giving up,” he says.
“We just gave each other a little kiss. And then we started seeing the firefighters coming towards us,” she says.
The couple thought the first firefighter they saw would begin the rescue, but he turned out to be preparing the area, spraying it with water so a second team could move forward.
Sara remembers repeatedly shouting “come and save us.” in the midst of confusion.
For more than an hour they waited on the balcony after breaking the glass to get through. Finally, another firefighter reached them with a crane.
They were the last couple to be saved from the burning remains of their tower. Ten people died in the fire.
“We only realized that everyone was watching us descend when we got to the bottom, and then we saw the video,” he says.
And he adds: “It was then that we realized how lucky we had been.”
Two days later, Sara says she feels numb and still unable to express her emotions.
But when she sees the couple from the neighboring apartment, tears flow as they embrace.
Manuel Díaz relates that His girlfriend, who was home when the fire started, is in shock.
“We feel like we’re fighting a mental battle,” he says, “because we lost everything, but we’re alive. And that is the most important”.
Sara’s neighbor, Manuel Díaz, says they lost everything in the fire.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the fire, which started in an apartment in the largest tower and spread quickly.
Cladding, the material used on the façade, is suspected to have been a major factor as some media reported it was banned in 2019 due to its flammability, but was not removed from buildings that had used it.
Sara claims that she knew that the tower had been built cheaply and that the infrastructure was poor due to frequent flooding.
When it rained, the walls of the apartment above would flood. She painted herself again and they continued like that.
“There were a lot of warning signs,” he says.
“But the people had their lives there; We had a comfortable apartment, so we stayed. Now I can’t understand why they let that material stay in the building after it was banned. One day, it was so windy that a piece flew away,” he says.
The towers are now just blackened shells, lifeless. The largest, where the fire started, had 138 apartments and about 450 residents.
Those displaced were told they will stay in hotels until the end of the month and then be provided with accommodation in newly built social housing.
Residents started a GoFundMe fundraising page to help with expenses, including paying for funerals for those who didn’t make it.
In the main square of Valencia, in front of the town hall, residents gather to observe a few minutes of silence.
With heads bowed, some wipe away tears.
Applause then sounds for the firefighters and some families affected by the tragedy.
Sara says she hasn’t been able to contact firefighters since the fire.
When they came down, they hugged their rescuers and then rushed them to a medical tent and then to the hospital for examination.
“When we were on the balcony, I could see the firefighters looking directly into our eyes. That was trust. I felt like they couldn’t leave us there. I have no words to express my gratitude to you. “They didn’t have to risk their lives but they chose to, and they are the only reason we are alive,” he says.
Sara Jorge holds back tears.
“We feel very lucky. It’s a strange feeling: luck is mixed with the desire to live. Maybe only tomorrow I will realize how I really feel,” she says.
Click to read more stories from BBC News Mundo.
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