Milan skyscraper 'became torch in just 3 mins' - videos

(ANSA) - MILAN, SEP 1 - A Milan skyscraper that burned out Sunday became a torch in about three minutes, according to videos posted on social media by former residents on Wednesday.
    The Torre dei Moro tower block in Via Antonini caught fire almost immediately sending incandescent parts of the building falling to the ground, the videos viewed by prosecutors show.
    Experts have said the skyscraper had "security issues" including flammable cladding while residents, who fortunately all got out safely, said the fire alarm failed to go off.
    Prosecutors said Wednesday they had found the firm that made and fitted the allegedly culpable cladding, a company named Aza Aghito Zambonini, based at Fiorenzuola near Piacenza.
    The building become a 'torch' due to a 'chimney effect', experts said on Monday.
    The 'Torre dei Moro' became a blackened ruin after a fire that consumed it all day Sunday. No one was hurt as the building was evacuated in time.
    The fire started on the 15th floor, perhaps due to a short circuit, the experts said.
    It then spread to the rest of the building due to a chimney effect in which a current of air raced down between the building and its cladding panels, turning the tower into a torch, they said.
    Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has called for a probe to establish responsibility for the blaze.
    The northern city's fire brigade chief, Giuliano Santagata, said "I've never seen anything like it in Milan before".
    One of the evacuated residents said "we are 70 families without a home and we'll have to start again from scratch". Officials said it was lucky no one had been killed.
    Only a dog died in the fire, Milan prosecutors said.
    Among the residents of the tower block was singer-songwriter Mahmood, who won the Sanremo Song Festival and came second in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019.
    Veteran singer-songwriter and former X-Factor judge Morgan, who lives nearby, lives nearby and posted videos on Instagram saying "it was incredible, we were nearly set alight too".
    A 16th floor resident told prosecutors Monday that the cladding "burned up as if it were cardboard".
    Prosecutors said a preliminary examination had revealed "critical issues" in the block's fire system.
    Experts reportedly said the cladding had been made of "inappropriate" and highly flammable material. (ANSA).