Paramedics transfer a person injured during a fire in an apartment building in the Recoleta neighborhood in Buenos Aires, on June 23, 2022.LUIS ROBAYO (AFP)
A fire in a residential building has shaken the center of Buenos Aires this Thursday morning.
At least five people – three minors and two women – have died and 19 are hospitalized, as reported by the Emergency Medical Care System (SAME) of the Argentine capital.
A large emergency operation works from six in the morning (local time) in Recoleta, one of the most privileged neighborhoods in the city.
The fire, which broke out on the seventh floor of a building, is now under control.
The origin has not been clarified.
"We are going through the building floor by floor to find out if those who remained in the unaffected departments breathed smoke or not," the director of SAME, Alberto Crescenti, announced to the local media around nine in the morning.
Crescenti has confirmed that the five victims of the fire were evacuated alive from the building and died on the way to hospital.
The emergency services have treated 35 people;
and 19 of them were transferred to different hospitals in the city of Buenos Aires.
The city's head of government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, went to the scene around nine in the morning.
“We regret the five fatalities.
It is very hard”, said Larreta after highlighting the reflexes of the emergency services, who went to the scene 10 minutes after the first emergency call.
The mayor of the city arrived at the scene together with representatives of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), who have confirmed that the deceased belonged to the Jewish community of Buenos Aires.
The south of the Recoleta neighborhood, adjacent to the Once area, is home to one of the most vigorous Jewish communities in America.
"We wish the speedy recovery of those injured in this tragedy that saddens the entire society," the AMIA has released in a statement.
All the deceased belonged to the same family.
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