A fire inside a hidden tunnel exposed an underground settlement in Ceuta where between 30 and 50 migrants may have been living in severe poverty. Firefighters entered the gallery to extinguish flames from a small cooking stove and found an improvised camp beneath the city.
Canal Sur reported that firefighters believed the gallery could have held up to 300 people. The report also said some occupants may have returned after the fire. People used the passageways to avoid controls on the surface.
No one was injured. The occupants had left before emergency crews arrived, leaving behind traces of daily life in a narrow, dangerous space.
The blaze destroyed much of what was stored inside the gallery. Burned mattresses and chairs lay among the debris, along with clothes and cooking utensils. Parts of tents were scattered there too. Firefighters also found diving fins, objects often linked to attempts to cross into Spanish territory.
The fire spread quickly through the enclosed passage, filling the tunnel with thick smoke. A makeshift stove led to a larger discovery: the gallery was still in use. People had arranged it for sleeping and cooking, while staying out of sight.
Inspections by the SEIS after the emergency suggested that several occupants had returned within hours. Firefighters compared images of the site and saw signs of renewed activity in the same space, despite the damage from the flames.
Their return shows how few alternatives were available. Recent mass arrivals in Ceuta left some migrants with nowhere else to sleep. A burned, smoke-filled gallery could seem preferable to having no shelter at all.
Euronews and Al Jazeera reported that thousands of people in the city lacked normal accommodation after a sharp influx. Authorities set up temporary facilities in the port, but there was not enough space.
The pressure followed reports that around 70,000 to 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta during the late-July influx. The surge overwhelmed local services and worsened the shortage of places to sleep. Firefighters discovered the underground gallery separately, while responding to the blaze.
The episode differs sharply from the fatal care-home fire described in an earlier fire report. Emergency crews found no casualties here. They did find a place where an ordinary task had become a serious danger.
An underground camp existed in Ceuta inside a tunnel that could hold dozens of people. A stove and mattresses were among the equipment there, alongside other improvised supplies. The burned gallery shows how far some migrants were living from safe housing.
No one was hurt, but a cooking fire in a confined passage can destroy a person's only shelter. Smoke, along with blocked routes, can turn a makeshift home into a trap. Some migrants returned after the blaze. Without other options, even a damaged underground settlement remained part of their survival strategy.
