Young woman risks her life to rescue dogs from burning flat

Staff Reporter A young woman risked her life to save two dogs, when their flat caught on fire in Magalluf yesterday. Inmaculada Bernal, aged 24, had gone shopping, but when she returned at about 11.30am, she found that the third floor flat in the S'Olivera building in Magalluf was on fire. The flat was empty except for her two dogs, and she tried to rescue them but fainted at the entrance to the flat, after being overcome by smoke. In the meantime, the alarm had been raised. The Local Police were the first to arrive and they called the Council of Majorca fire brigade stationed at Santa Ponsa. It was the firemen who eventually entered the flat and rescued the two dogs, none the worse for their ordeal. The Guardia Civil of Palmanova and several ambulances also rushed to the apartment block. The police used fire extinguishers and evacuated the other flats. There were about 20 people in the building at the time, some of whom needed medical attention for hysteria and for smoke inhalation. At one point it was rumoured that someone was trapped in the building, but this proved to be unfounded. It took the fire brigade an hour to extinguish the blaze. The official report on the cause of the fire has not been completed but it is believed to have started in the bedroom and then spread rapidly to the other rooms. Material damage in the flat is considerable. The Calvia town council has sent a fire officer to the building to analyse the damage in the flat and any damage to the rest of the building. The father of Inmaculada Bernal, who works in the building, was in a state of shock yesterday, but said that “it could have been much worse.”