The alarm was raised in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The local fire chief Angel Lopez told the French news agency AFP that the emergency services had attempted to revive the four people "but they couldn't save them."

The parents of the two boys, a 40-year-old man and his 39-year-old wife, reportedly survived in the city by collecting scrap metal. The man is reported to have come originally from Pakistan and the woman from Romania.

"There are no words to describe the horror of the death of these four people, including two small children. This is something that should never happen, it is horrible news," said Ada Colau, Barcelona’s mayor, to the press after visiting the scene of the fire on Tuesday, November 30.

'Screaming for help'

Neighbors living in a flat above which was not affected by the fire, told AFP they could hear the "family screaming for help." A man named as Miquel Giumera told AFP that his wife had "smelled something burning."

Guimera said that the family appeared to have been locked in the squat and that hearing the screams was "quite traumatic." He added the family appeared to have been living there for two or three years. "It’s a real shame about those two little children," Guimera added.

Four other men did escape the fire and were rescued and treated for smoke inhalation in hospital. The local police have opened an investigation into the causes of the fire, reports AFP. The former bank building, which was occupied by the squatters was reportedly in the middle of a "lively middle class neighborhood in the center of Barcelona."

Family support

Local social workers had visited the squat to offer food and information about medical care to those who lived there. One social rights official in Barcelona, Laura Perez told AFP, "behind this tragedy was a situation of poverty, social exclusion and homelessness that was quite complex to manage as a city council."

According to Perez, the city authorities had been supporting the family since August 2020 and the three-year-old boy was already attending school. Police had been called to the squat over a dispute hours before the fire broke out. However, according to the regional interior minister Joan Ignasi Elena, "there was no immediate evidence [the call out] was related to the blaze."

However, another neighbor, a pensioner, told AFP that he had often been awoken at night because of shouts and the sounds of fighting coming from inside the squat. Josep Iganci Homs told AFP reporters that in his opinion, "the authorities and the courts should have removed the children from here because look how it all ended."

Police called to squat prior to fire

Guimera also told Euronews that he had heard a "brawl" break out in the building at about 2am a few hours before he called the fire brigade. The mayor also told Euronews that they were aware of "problems of cohabitation" within the squat, and that police had had to intervene on several occasions.

One of Catalonia’s leading English newspapers, ara, said that many neighbors had repeatedly warned the authorities that something terrible would happen in the squat and "no one did anything."

Ara also reports though that the authorities had inspected the premises on October 18 and concluded that although the family may be living in poor conditions, the overall premises posed "no imminent risk and that the housing conditions were not structurally compromised."

They also added that they had been working hard to gain the deceased family’s trust "little by little" to ensure that the children were safe and well-looked after.

Because of the cost of living and rents in Barcelona, the authorities estimate that several hundred people are squatting in the city. They say that about 481 people are living in 105 squats around the city, including 156 minors. A further 384 people are resident in informal camps.

A wider problem

A year ago, a similar blaze, also killed four and injured about 20 people when a fire ripped through a disused industrial complex that had been occupied by mainly African migrants.

The authorities have not yet put forward reasons for the cause of the fire, but according to ara, one neighbor said that those in the squat were "illegally connected to the [utilities] supplies." Barcelona’s city authorities also said that it was up to owners of abandoned buildings, in this case the Evo Bank to maintain their properties.

According to ara owners of these buildings who "shun responsibility for their former offices [is] a city-wide problem." After the fire in December 2020, Barcelona police put together a report on other abandoned buildings which were being used as squats.

A Catalan regional government spokesperson Patrícia Plaja said that this case once again highlights "the housing emergency that the country is experiencing." Plaja told ara that they wanted to work together to address the root causes. "We cannot normalize events like this and that asks explanations from us all, especially the administration," she concluded.

Also read: Spain: Survivors of Badalona fire fight for dignity

With AFP, ara, Euronews