Major fire in Gesundbrunnen: 150 firefighters on duty

Created: 09/11/2022Updated: 09/11/2022, 09:45

A blue light shines on the roof of a fire service vehicle.

© David Inderlied/dpa/Symbolbild

The flames blazed high from the roof of the house in northern Berlin and the smoke could be smelled from miles away.

Despite intensive extinguishing, the fire initially grew larger.

A fire broke out in the roof of a former Jewish retirement home in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen on Sunday night.

The fire brigade had to move out to a large-scale operation and fought the fire in Schulstrasse for several hours.

Around 150 firefighters were deployed, a spokesman said.

The smoke could still be smelled miles away in Prenzlauer Berg, Potsdamer Platz, Alexanderplatz and even in Neukölln, as people wrote on Twitter.

According to the fire brigade, the surrounding streets were also heavily smoked.

She urged residents to close windows and doors.

The fire department was alerted around 11:00 p.m.

At 2:30 a.m., the fire in the attic of the empty three-storey building was still spreading, despite "intensive firefighting".

About 2500 square meters were in flames.

The fire brigade expected to extinguish the fire well into Sunday morning.

"Fire fighting will continue until the morning hours," it said.

A firefighter was slightly injured.

Photos from the fire brigade showed a building with high flames erupting from the roof.

The school street was completely blocked for the extinguishing work.

No one was injured in the fire.

Two homeless people were taken out of the house in time by firefighters, the spokesman reported.

Extinguishing the fire was also difficult because the roof was on a reinforced concrete ceiling.

As a result, firefighters could not approach the flames from below.

On the other hand, the fire could not spread from top to bottom in the building.

dpa