Torre Windsor

Torre Windsor before the fire

The Torre Windsor (Windsor Tower) was a 106 m high office building in the AZCA business district north of the center of the Spanish capital, Madrid . The skyscraper was built from 1973 to 1979 based on the designs of the Alas Casariego architects and was one of the 20 tallest skyscrapers in Spain in 2005, while it was also the eleventh tallest building in Madrid.

Fire, collapse and demolition

On February 12, 2005, the office building, which was partially empty due to renovation, burned down. The fire was discovered on Saturday around 11:20 p.m. on the 21st floor. From there, the flames quickly spread to the entire building. Shortly after 1:00 a.m. and about 1 hour and 50 minutes after the fire started, the building began to collapse due to the temperature of the fire. The collapse - which only extended to the upper and outer part of the building - initially took place in several small sections, until it finally came to a large and final collapse. The steel construction ( exoskeleton ) of the facade and the reinforced concrete floors attached to it collapsed above the 17th floor. The concrete inner part of the building remained, as did the steel construction of the lower floors from the 17th floor down. When it collapsed, large amounts of the building substance were also thrown in front of the building. Until 10:00 in the morning, it was expected that the building could collapse completely.

Despite a large-scale operation, the fire could only be extinguished after 8:00 p.m. on Sunday evening. The fire was the worst in Madrid history. The building was in great danger of collapsing and therefore had to be demolished.