In a fire in a retirement home in Wardenburg, Lower Saxony, three residents died on Sunday evening.
According to the fire department, the three seniors died from smoke inhalation.
Around 250 firefighters took part in the operation south of Oldenburg.
Reinhard Bingener
Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.
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The fire is said to have broken out shortly before 8 p.m. in the single room of a resident of the retirement home, which is located at the back of the facility.
The fire detector registered the fire, which the alerted emergency services were able to quickly extinguish.
They also managed to rescue most of the 37 residents from their rooms in time.
In addition to the three deaths, however, there were ten other people who were injured, some of them life-threateningly.
They were taken to hospitals.
Residents and neighbors help with evacuation
A police spokeswoman said that so far there was no evidence of arson, but rather that negligence was assumed.
The first traces were secured on the night of the fire.
On Monday afternoon, the police announced that an expert on the cause of the fire had been deployed and that the public prosecutor's office had ordered the autopsy of the three deceased in the Oldenburg forensic medicine department.
A quick clarification of the cause of the fire is not to be expected, said a police spokeswoman.
The residents of the retirement home were to be accommodated in nearby facilities later on Monday after spending the night in an emergency and nursing home.
A spokesman for the fire brigade praised the willingness of the population to help.
"The civil courage of residents and neighbors was very great, they helped the nurses with the evacuation, that worked well."