(Adnkronos) – Several people were injured in a fire that broke out inside a multi-story residential building in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. Dramatic moments were experienced during the rescue operation, a fire department spokesperson announced, with people leaning out of windows threatening to jump. “The fire started on the balcony on the eleventh floor and then spread inside the apartment,” he explained. “The flames also reached the twelfth floor.”
A resident of the burning apartment, in a panic, wanted to escape the flames by jumping from the window. “When we arrived, a person was already sitting on the windowsill,” the spokesperson quoted by Berliner Morgenpost said. “We managed to rescue her with a ladder truck,” which, however, only reached up to about the ninth floor, so the person – a woman, according to video footage taken by those present – had to jump two floors down, landing in the basket.
The fire department was alerted at 6:27 AM, and at the height of the operation, 160 men were deployed for rescue efforts at the 21-story skyscraper. A large amount of smoke was spreading throughout the building, the fire department spokesperson stated. In total, 115 people were involved, 25 of whom were evacuated. Thirteen people sustained minor injuries and received emergency medical assistance. Five people were transported to the hospital. A dog was also rescued by emergency services.
