The Windsor Tower was built in 1979 in the financial center of Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. This office building was 106 m high and had 32 floors of which 29 were above ground level and 3 below, thus ranking it as the eighth tallest building in Madrid (and 23rd in Spain). It was gutted by a huge fire on February 12, 2005, and partially collapsed; it has since been demolished.

Characteristics of the building

The building, located at Calle Raimundo Fernández Villaverde 65, had a total area of 20,000 square meters and was one of the first modern towers in Madrid. The tower was designed in 1974 by a team of six important Spanish architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

s and was constructed between 1975 and 1979.

Its distinctive appearance was due to its elemental geometry

Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

, lacking composite elements. Its façade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 was completely covered by reflective glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

-like panels that mirrored the sky of Madrid, diminishing its visual impact. The structure was divided into two halves by a technical floor without windows. It was a very solid building, with a central core of reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

 that resisted the high temperatures of the fire without collapsing.

The fire

Around midnight, on Saturday, February 12, 2005, a fire was detected on the 21st floor. The fire spread quickly throughout the entire building, leading to the collapse of the outermost, steel parts of the upper floors; firefighters needed almost 24 hours to extinguish it. While seven firefighters were injured, nobody was killed in the fire, which was arguably the worst in Madrid's history.

The city council

City council

A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...

 of Madrid covered the cost of demolishing the remains of the building, thought to be some €

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

22 million (USD $32.5 million). Demolition was completed in August 2005, and as of 2006 the site awaits redevelopment. The tower's owners are expected to build a replacement tower of similar size.

Causes

It was initially thought that the fire was the result of an electrical fault

Short circuit

A short circuit in an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path, often where essentially no electrical impedance is encountered....

.

Windsor Building in popular culture

The free Internet-novel "Yo quemé el edificio Windsor (fue sin querer)", Paúl Fernández de Areilza ( http://yoquemeeledificiowindsorsinquerer.blogspot.com/ )".

External links

• elmundo.es, Arde el Winsor (Windsor burns). A lot of impressive images of the fire, in Spanish.
• BBC Madrid skyscraper faces collapse
• BBC News UK Edition, Commuter chaos after Madrid blaze.
• CNN.com, Madrid alert after skyscraper fire.
• Borneo Bulletin, Arsonists may be behind Madrid fire.
• NAMC Worldwide Newsroom, Horrific Fire at the Windsor Tower in Madrid Spain Shakes the Capital.
• NEWS24.com, Silhouettes in Madrid inferno.