A devastating residential fire has left multiple people dead and several others injured in the Belgian port city of Antwerp, local law enforcement confirmed Wednesday. The inferno ignited shortly before 10 a.m. local time (8 a.m. GMT) in the city’s Linkeroever district, with thick, acrid smoke quickly billowing out from the eighth floor of the 10-storey apartment building, visible for blocks around the site.
Captured on dramatic on-the-ground footage, one resident was seen scrambling from his own balcony through a neighbor’s window to outrun the suffocating black smoke that was rapidly engulfing his unit. The building is home to more than 200 residents, according to local police data.
Geert Dewulf, one of the building’s residents, shared his harrowing escape experience with Belgian public television. “Thick smoke blocked our path to the stairwell, so we couldn’t get out of our flat,” he explained. “We barricaded ourselves inside to keep the smoke out and waited on our balcony for help. The fire brigade showed up with their ladder and rescued us about 10 minutes later.”
Emergency responders have been conducting a systematic door-to-door search of the entire building to locate any unaccounted-for residents. Fire department officials noted that the rapid spread of toxic smoke through the building’s corridors created major challenges for coordinated evacuation efforts immediately after the fire broke out.
In one notable case, a local man confirmed that his parents-in-law — including Bob Cools, the former mayor of Antwerp — had been successfully pulled from the building and transported to a local hospital for evaluation. He added that despite desperate attempts to rescue his family cat from the burning unit, the crew could not reach the animal in time.
As of Wednesday afternoon, investigators have not yet determined the official cause of the fire. Multiple witnesses told local newspaper De Standaard that renovation work was ongoing on the building’s roof at the time the blaze broke out, which is being examined as a potential contributing factor by authorities.