The speed at which fire spread across the Torre del Moro residential building in Milan has led some to liken the event to the fire at the Grenfell Tower in London, and suspect the cladding likewise played a role.
The 20-story building was completed in 2010. Designed to look like the keel of a ship it included an aluminium sail on its roof, which burned and fell to the street in pieces, according to Euronews.
The blaze broke out on Sunday, 29 August, and firefighters were still working to put out hotspots on 30 August. A resident first noticed the fire and sounded the alarm, prompting the evacuation of residents. No serious injuries or deaths were reported. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
“The cause of the fires still needs to be determined, but it seems that the rapid spread of the flames was due to the thermal covering of the building,” said Carlo Sibia, an Interior Ministry official in Rome.
For more on this story, go to Euronews.