A large-scale fire that broke out in a 21-story residential high-rise in central Berlin left around five individuals injured and triggered chaotic, high-stakes rescue operations that ended with the blaze being contained on Friday morning, according to local German media reports.
The intensity of the fire trapped multiple residents in upper floors of the building, with several people even contemplating jumping from heights to escape the spreading smoke and flames, the reports added. While five people have been confirmed injured, the full extent and severity of those injuries remain unclear as of Friday midday, German national news agency DPA relayed. Every resident from the affected building was successfully evacuated from the site by emergency responders.
In one particularly harrowing incident documented during the response, one resident was forced to jump from their endangered floor directly into the aerial rescue basket of a responding fire truck. A spokesperson for the Berlin Fire Department characterized the entire rescue mission as an exceptionally dramatic operation, noting that teams had to work under intense pressure to reach trapped civilians. Details on the vertical distance of that high-stakes jump have not been released to the public as of yet.
According to DPA’s preliminary on-site reporting, the fire ignited at approximately 6:30 a.m. local time in the dense Friedrichshain neighborhood, just a short distance from Berlin’s busy Ostbahnhof central train station. It took emergency teams less than three hours from the initial call-out to bring the blaze fully under control, a relatively fast response that helped prevent a larger number of casualties.
Investigators have confirmed the fire originated in a private apartment located on the 11th floor of the building, before spreading upward to the residential unit directly above the origin point. At this early stage of the investigation, the official cause of the blaze has not been determined, as authorities continue to examine the site for clues.