The stairwell is in bright flames, several panicked residents jump out of the window on the upper floor, a person misses the fire department’s jump cushion and lands on a car roof – dramatic scenes took place early in the morning during a major fire in an apartment building in Solingen.
A family’s father, mother and two children were killed in the fire. “The death of an entire family is a day of mourning for our entire city,” explained Solingen’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach, and ordered mourning flags. Another nine people were taken to hospitals with injuries of varying severity. The house is uninhabitable. The city must provide tenants with alternative accommodation.
Wooden stairwell burned
The fire probably broke out on the first floor of the approximately 100-year-old house with a wooden staircase and spread rapidly, said a fire department spokesman. Flames were coming out of the windows on the first floor when emergency services arrived at the house.
The fire was reported to the fire department at 2:47 a.m. Around 40 people reported to the emergency call center almost simultaneously, a spokesman said. The first firefighters were at the scene of the fire within six minutes. The fire department deployed up to 120 emergency services.
Rescue only possible via window
When the fire brigade arrived, the wooden stairwell was “red-hot and fully ablaze,” said operations manager Gottfried Kreuzberg. The escape route was “completely burned away”. So the old building became a death trap. “At this point, the residents of the house could only be rescued through the windows,” the city said in a statement.
The firefighters had the fire under control by morning. Then the nerve-wracking search began for a missing smaller child, an infant, of whom there was initially no trace. Firefighters repeatedly drove up the soot-blackened facade with lifting platforms and climbed over the roof into the building. In the meantime, a sniffer dog was also brought into the house.
The search operation on the upper floor was definitely dangerous, said a fire department spokesman. Part of the ground was burned away by the flames. Finally, the sad certainty: the emergency services brought a body bag into the building via the roof. Shortly thereafter, the city also confirmed the death of the fourth victim.
Emergency chaplain also for the fire department
The cause of the fire is still unclear. Police fire investigators took over the scene of the fire in the early afternoon and began searching. After the operation, emergency chaplains not only looked after the residents of the house, but also the fire brigade, as the city announced. “I can hardly put into words how sad I am today, especially when I think of the children,” said Solingen’s mayor.
North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst also expressed his condolences: “The news from Solingen deeply affects me – a terrible tragedy,” he said on X (formerly Twitter).