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Firefighters after the operation: several seriously injured came to the hospital

Photo: Annette Riedl / dpa

In the case of a fire in an apartment building in Berlin's Wilmersdorf district, a woman wanted to save herself from the burning apartment via a ladder and crashed. The woman was critically injured and had to be resuscitated on Tuesday night, according to a spokesman for the fire department. Her son, seriously injured, was able to escape via the ladder. The fire brigade had initially assumed that the two had jumped out of the apartment. A total of eight people were injured, some seriously, many suffered smoke inhalation, some even burns.

The fire broke out on Tuesday night in an apartment on the first floor of a six-storey apartment building. It also spread to the apartments above. A total of 145 firefighters were deployed, as the Berlin fire brigade announced on Twitter.

A neighbor from the ground floor provided assistance with his ladder, according to the fire department. The man noticed two people on the balcony of the blazing apartment on the 1st floor and put the ladder on a balcony to the rescue. Flames and smoke were already coming out of the windows of the apartment when the woman lost her footing while climbing down and fell down. She was found critically injured by the fire brigade on the sidewalk.

Extinguishing work lasted until the morning

The fire brigade brought two seriously injured people from the second floor of the house. One of the two also had to be resuscitated. Four others were also seriously injured and rescued from the smoky stairwell. Firefighters brought them out of the house with so-called fire escape hoods.

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The injured were taken to a hospital. Many other tenants had become aware of the fire through smoke detectors and had left the house in time. Around 30 residents were cared for in a bus provided. The extinguishing work lasted until the morning.

It is still unclear how the fire started. The house is not habitable for the time being.

lmd/dpa