At least five dead and sixteen injured in a fire in an apartment building in Antwerp, Belgium
The firefighters received the alert at 9:53 AM and evacuated the building, where more than 200 people lived
At least five people have died this Wednesday and sixteen more have been injured in a fire in an apartment building in the city of Antwerp, Belgium. According to the Belgian police, more than 200 people lived in the building, which has now been evacuated, although it is not known how many people were inside at the time the fire broke out. The mayor, Els Van Doesburg, specified that the lives of none of the injured are in danger. The local fire department received the alert at 9:53 a.m., reporting a fire of "high intensity" in a ten-story apartment building located in the Linkeroever neighborhood.
"We ask residents affected by the smoke to close their windows and doors and, if necessary, to turn off ventilation," the police pointed out. Several fire brigades from different districts of the city have moved to the scene to try to control and extinguish the fire. Evacuated residents who were not injured have been housed in a nearby residential center.
The police reported in a statement that the fire was caused by a "technical problem" on the ground floor of the building. The firefighters were able to evacuate the 80 apartments in the building and about seven hours later, at five in the afternoon, they were able to extinguish the flames and declared the rescue operation over, with no further victims found.
