After an explosion in the basement, an apartment building in the Saxon Vogtland municipality of Ellefeld was destroyed by fire on Sunday night and another became uninhabitable. A lifeless man was found under the rubble earlier today. According to the Zwickau police department, it is the 67-year-old owner of the house where the fire started. The roof of the other building burned out. According to the authorities, the property damage caused is estimated at “at least 600,000 euros”.
According to the first findings of the fire investigators, a leaking, out of order gas line could be the cause of the loud explosion at midnight. According to the police, local residents reported this. According to this, one of the connected old terraced houses burned “lichterloh”. Although several fire brigades were quickly on site, the flames spread to the neighboring house.
Around 100 firefighters were involved in extinguishing the fire
Its residents had previously left it without outside help. The surrounding buildings were evacuated as a precaution, and the power and gas supplies were temporarily shut off. A total of eleven adults and one child were brought to safety. The dead man lived alone in his house, a police spokeswoman said.
The extinguishing work, in which around 100 firefighters were involved, lasted almost four hours until early morning. The house where the fire broke out has collapsed, the other is unusable “until further notice”. Its residents lost their homes first. They stayed with neighbors, said the police spokeswoman. The total damage to property is not yet known – and the criminal police are investigating in this case.
