Bar fire in Berlin's Charlottenburg injures 21, many of them elderly residents
A fire broke out in a bar on Kaiserdamm on Tuesday morning. Smoke spread into a building housing assisted-living flats; three people were taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Symbolic image · Photo: User:Sebaso / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Berlin's fire brigade was called at around 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday to a fire in a bar on Kaiserdamm near Sophie-Charlotte-Platz in the Charlottenburg district. More than 110 personnel responded. According to the fire brigade, the bar was completely gutted and smoke entered the stairwell of the building, which also houses shared assisted-living flats.
The fire brigade said 21 people were injured, most of them elderly residents. Three suffered serious smoke inhalation and were taken to hospital. Citing the heavy smoke, the residents' situation and the early hour, the brigade declared a mass casualty incident early on, which automatically releases additional rescue resources.
The fire has been extinguished and clean-up work is under way. The cause is still unclear; police have opened an investigation. Building authorities are checking whether and how the building can be lived in again.