DEMOLITION work has finally begun on Malaga’s doomed Hotel Ibis – almost four months on from the devastating fire that gutted the building and left it uninhabitable.
Footage shared on social media shows cranes and wrecking balls tearing into the facade of the two-star hotel, which lies on the banks of the Guadalmedina River in the centre of Malaga city.
The Almeria-based demolition company AGI is responsible for flattening the building, with the process expected to take around two months.
The demolition is expected to cause disruption to traffic in one of the busiest parts of the city.
The tunnel beneath the Guimbarda corridor, which extends Avenida de Fatima towards Avenida de la Aurora, will remain open through the works.
However, a new barrier has been installed to cordon off the right-hand lane, while the bus lane will also remain closed along its first section.
Normal traffic flow is expected to be restored within two to three weeks.
Meanwhile, Calle Padre Jorge Lamothe and part of Calle Cerrojo will remain closed to vehicles until the demolition is complete.
Emergency services were first called to the hotel in the early hours of May 25 after a fire broke out in a ground-floor cafe before rapidly spreading to the adjoining hotel complex.
The hotel’s evacuation plan was activated immediately and all guests and staff were safely evacuated without injury.
However, extinguishing the fire proved far more difficult than expected.
Within a week, firefighters and city officials concluded that the building’s unique wooden floor structure posed too great a collapse risk to allow personnel inside, especially after a partial collapse occurred on the first floor.
That means efforts to put out the inferno were restricted to pumping water in from outside, leaving pockets of intense heat inaccessible and with no option but to wait for the fire to burn itself out.
The blaze appeared to have been successfully extinguished on several occasions – most recently just 15 days before firefighters finally withdrew, a full month after it first ignited.
The five-storey building, which housed 189 double rooms and 47 parking spaces, was finally extinguished in July – some 47 days after the flames first broke out.
The site’s owner, Grupo Acor, is widely expected to construct a new hotel in its place, likely taller than the original.
Malaga mayor Francisco de la Torre has given his backing for a four or five-star replacement – and one built, as he said, ‘without wooden floors’.
Before the fire broke out, the hotel was waiting on planning permission to add a further three floors and an upgrade to a three or four-star rating.
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