A fire led Ceuta firefighters to a hidden underground camp. The tunnel contained bedding and cooking equipment for dozens of migrants, while separate reports said it may have been large enough to hold up to 300 people. No injuries were reported.
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 put out flames from a small cooking stove. They 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. The passageways were being used by people trying to avoid controls on the surface.
No one was injured. The occupants had left before emergency crews arrived. They left behind the remains of daily life in a narrow and dangerous space.
Временный палаточный центр в порту Ceuta рассчитан примерно на 1 500–1 700 взрослых, однако сообщения Euronews, Al Jazeera и The Olive Press указывают, что этой вместимости недостаточно для всех оставшихся без жилья мигрантов.
The blaze destroyed much of what was stored inside the gallery. Burned mattresses, chairs, clothes, cooking utensils and parts of tents lay among the debris. Firefighters also found diving fins, objects often linked to attempts to cross into Spanish territory.
The fire spread quickly through the enclosed passage. Thick smoke filled the tunnel. What began with a makeshift stove led to a larger discovery. This was not abandoned infrastructure. People had arranged the gallery so they could sleep, cook and stay 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.
Пожары затрагивали и другие неформальные места проживания. Morocco World News сообщал о возгорании в районе Las Naves del Tarajal, где сгорели десятки палаток и временных укрытий, а сотни людей остались без жилья.
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 the available space was not enough.
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. The underground gallery was found separately during the fire response.
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.
The central fact for Ceuta is simple. An underground camp existed, with a stove, mattresses and improvised equipment inside a tunnel that could hold dozens of people. The burned gallery shows how far some migrants were living from safe housing.
No one was hurt, but that does not make the discovery less serious. A cooking fire in a confined passage can destroy a person's only shelter. Smoke and 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.
