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FIRE

Intense fire burns in Swedish capital apartment block

Firefighters were on Saturday struggling to contain a fire that broke out on Friday night just a few kilometres away from the city's Eurovision venue, the Globe Arena.

Intense fire burns in Swedish capital apartment block
A large area around Bondegatan, Åsögatan, Ploggatan and Barnängsgatan is cordoned off to traffic and pedestrians. Photo: TT

The fire broke out on Friday night in an apartment block at the intersection of Bondegatan/Duvnäsgatan in the Södermalm district of Stockholm, just north of the arena.

However only two people had complained of suffering from smoke inhalation by late on Saturday afternoon, with no other injuries reported.

A total of 35 residents were asked to leave their homes and city emergency authorities said they had resigned themselves to the probability that the fire would spread to other apartment blocks in the area..

Niklas Carl Weitz, lead operator at the Greater Stockholm fire department told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet: “The fire is likely to spread to other buildings. The roof may also collapse.”

A large area around Bondegatan, Åsögatan, Ploggatan and Barnängsgatan is cordoned off to traffic and pedestrians.

So far, the cause of the fire has not been established, but an investigation into suspected aggravated arson has begun, according to police.

FIRE

Barcelona fire kills four, including two children

A fire ripped through an abandoned bank occupied by squatters in central Barcelona on Tuesday, killing four people, including a baby and a three year-old boy, Spanish firefighters said.

Police and firefighters gather outside an abandoned building where a blaze broke out early on November 30, 2021 in Barcelona, killing four people.
Police and firefighters gather outside an abandoned building where a blaze broke out early on November 30, 2021 in Barcelona, killing four people. (Photo by Pau BARRENA / AFP)

“While we were battling the fire, we found four people. Emergency services tried to revive them but unfortunately they failed, they could not do anything to save them,” the head of the firefighting operation, Ángel López, told reporters.

Firefighters rescued four other people who were inside the building while putting out the blaze, he added.

Those four were treated for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters rushed to the scene at around 6 am after being warned that a blaze had broken out in the building, Mr Lopez said.

While Mr López said it was not clear how the four dead people were related, Barcelona-based daily newspaper La Vanguardia said they were all members of a Romanian family.

A spokesman for Catalonia’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, said an investigation had been opened into the causes of the fire.

In December 2020, four people were killed after a blaze ripped through an industrial complex occupied by squatters, many of them African migrants, near Barcelona.

Over 100 squatters were believed to be living in precarious conditions at the abandoned complex in Badalona, a suburban town north of the city.

In addition to the four deaths, more than 20 people were injured in the blaze.

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