A 45 year old man died in the early hours of this morning as the result of a fire in a house in Urbanización Punta Galea in Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, and police are trying to determine whether this was a case of murder or suicide.
The man’s wife is in hospital. She has been questioned by police but has not been arrested.
Firemen arrived at the home to find a highly evolved blaze and several explosions occurred as they tried to extinguish the fire. The explosions were caused by a number of bottles of gasoline present in the home and these fanned the flames which, at one point, threatened to reach the fire engines.
Inside the house they found a man unconscious on the floor and basic life support manoeuvres. When a medical team arrived on the scene they began advanced resuscitation procedures but were unable to revive the man and he died about thirty minutes later.
The victim had second and third degree burns to over fifty percent of his body.