The Brussels firefighters were called this Saturday April 30 around 5:15 a.m. for a fire on the 7th floor of a building in Etterbeek. It was an accidental fire.
When the intervention teams arrived on Avenue Nouvelle, the 8th and 9th floors of the building had been evacuated by the Montgomery police zone. The alarm was working.
The fire was active in an apartment on the right side. Its occupant had been evacuated. “We broke the window on the front facade and attacked the fire which was just behind the window”, relates Walter Derieuw, spokesperson for the Brussels fire brigade.
Intoxicated policemen
“Someone had the good reflex to close the door of the apartment on fire, which made it possible to limit the release of smoke in the corridors and to slow down the possible spread of the fire”, welcomes the representative men of fire. “The oxygen supply to the fire was also diminished.”
The damaged apartment is uninhabitable. The four police inspectors who evacuated the inhabitants are slightly intoxicated by the smoke. “They were seen by the SMUR doctor on site and they were oxygenated in the ambulance. Hospitalization was, fortunately, not required”, emphasizes Walter Derieuw.
The Mayor of Etterbeek Vincent De Wolf descended on the spot to assess the extent of the evacuation himself. 3 pumpers and 2 self-ladders were mobilized.