Major alarm in Berlin-Kreuzberg: Three patients and a nurse suffered serious injuries in a fire in the Vivantes Klinikum Am Urban. Among the patients is a woman who was stuck in an elevator at the time of the fire and was critically injured, the fire department said on Monday night. She probably suffered from smoke inhalation.
According to initial police investigations, the fire was set by a 48-year-old. He is said to have set fire to two beds in a corridor on the second floor of the large hospital building at around 12:10 a.m. on Monday night. The man is also said to have tried to set fire to a rubbish bin in the foyer. According to the police, this was prevented by the firefighters who had just arrived. The police arrested the alleged perpetrator that night and are investigating serious arson.
The beds were set on fire in front of the elevators, said a spokesman for the Vivantes clinic group, which owns the Urban Hospital.
According to the fire brigade, the four injured were taken to the Friedrichshain hospital during the night, where there is a pressure chamber for the treatment of acute lung injuries. Several other people were slightly injured, including two firefighters.
The alarm was received by the fire department at 12:33 a.m. Heavy smoke was then reported in the building, the smoke spread over eight floors. The emergency room had to be evacuated. Around 100 emergency services were deployed.
The fire surprised patients and medical staff at the Landwehr Canal hospital in the middle of the night. “It’s lucky that we were able to save the woman from the elevator and that there weren’t more serious injuries,” said a fire department spokesman.
According to its website, the Klinikum Am Urban has 614 beds and 12 medical departments. Around 65,000 patients are treated every year. There are around 300 doctors and 605 nurses.
Some hospitals have strict fire safety regulations that do not allow empty beds to stand in aisles. Whether this also applies to the hospital and why the beds were there is not yet known, the spokesman said.
