A married couple staying in Madrid just opposite the Windsor building last weekend claim to have seen people inside the building when the fire was raging on the top few floors. They recorded what they believed were two people moving around and visible through one of the windows, and their home video was broadcast on national television on Friday. Police spent yesterday afternoon questioning the man about exactly what he saw. Since the video was broadcast, other people who watched the fire from their homes have come forward claiming that they also saw people in the building at about the same time.<\/p>\n
The video has mystified police investigating the Windsor fire, because at the time it was recorded, between three and five o’clock a.m., officially there was no longer anyone in the building. The couple rang Spain’s emergency number at three a.m. to say that they had seen people inside the building, but they were told that all floors of the skyscraper had been evacuated hours before, there were no casualties, and that the people must be firemen. However Madrid’s fire services have confirmed that all firemen had left the building by one thirty a.m. Representatives of Ason, a real estate company and owners of the Windsor building, and Deloitte, the building’s most important tenant, have both confirmed that none of their employees were in the building at that time either. The figures were seen on the 16th floor which was occupied by Deloitte before the fire destroyed the building last weekend.<\/p>\n
On the same day the video recording was shown on Spanish televisi\u00f3n (Friday), Ason cirulated a press release rejecting the hypothesis that the cause of the fire could have been a short ciruit fault, and clearing the company of any possible responsability for the blaze. The release stated that the short circuit explanation lacked feasibility because all the air conditioning and heating in the building were switched off at weekends. Furthermore, the company underlined the fact that the building’s fire alarms and extinguishing facilities underwent a full inspection last month which they passed.<\/p>\n