High-rise building evacuated

Dramatic scenes at basement fire in residential complex

Firefighters in front of the affected block of flats(Bild: Stadt Wien | Feuerwehr )

On Saturday night, firefighters were called out to a high-rise apartment complex in Vienna-Simmering due to a fire in the basement. Numerous people had to be evacuated wearing escape filter masks. The police currently suspect arson.

Smoke rose in the stairwell, heavy in places, and the smell of burning spread through some of the apartments. Frightened residents called the fire department. The Vienna professional fire department used breathing apparatus to fight the fire in the basement and searched the stairwell and apartments for people inside, the Vienna professional fire department announced in the morning.

Firefighters in front of the affected apartment block(Bild: Stadt Wien | Feuerwehr )

Black columns of smoke rising.(Bild: Stadt Wien | Feuerwehr )

Several breathing apparatus teams used escape filter masks to bring numerous residents outside through the smoke-filled stairwell and handed them over to Vienna's professional rescue service.

Unfortunately, this fire is not the first of its kind. The fire investigators of the Vienna State Office of Criminal Investigation are currently working at full speed on burning cellar compartments in residential buildings in Vienna-Simmering. As it turns out, fires are said to have broken into several cellar compartments in a residential complex in the past few days, which were quickly extinguished by the fire department. Tonight, unknown perpetrators are said to have broken into several cellar compartments again and then started a fire.