The small town of Gernsbach near Baden-Baden in the northern Black Forest became the scene of a tragedy on Thursday. A fire at a residential building has caused deaths – it is feared that three missing children aged four, eight and 14 died in the fire. An autopsy of the corpses discovered in the ruins has been ordered, said a spokeswoman for the Offenburg police headquarters on Friday when asked by stern. A result may not be expected until Monday. Only then will the identity of the dead be finally clarified.
According to initial investigations, the fire broke out around 2.45 a.m. in a former inn in the village of Reichental. The fire brigade, Red Cross, technical relief organization and police deployed to the three-story building with a large contingent of more than 100 emergency services. “When emergency services arrived, the house was fully engulfed in flames,” a statement said.
Around a dozen residents were able to get to safety, three of them had to be treated in hospital, as did a police officer. The fire brigade and local residents were able to save two young people and a one-year-old toddler from the flames and smoke on the roof of the building. The extinguishing work took several hours, but the rescuers could not enter the house – while the three children were still missing. The police spoke of “evacuation and rescue measures carried out under the most difficult conditions”. The building is in acute danger of collapsing. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief stabilized parts of the ruins so that they can be entered.
It was not until Thursday morning that the fire department’s height rescue specialists were able to examine the burned-out top floor and found the three lifeless bodies there. You have been recovered. “All emergency services, authorities and organizations involved in the operation are very concerned in view of the serious consequences,” the police said. “Residents and relatives are being looked after by the emergency crisis team.”
Gernsbach’s mayor was deeply affected: “I am dismayed by this devastating fire. The residents of the house have my greatest sympathy,” said Julian Christ, according to the “Badische Latest News”. He called for donations for those affected and announced that he would support the search for new housing.
The cause of the fire in the building has not yet been clarified. The public prosecutor’s office blocked the former hotel, which, according to the information, mainly housed Eastern European working-class families and individuals. Fire investigators investigated the scene of the accident. The investigations by the Rastatt Criminal Police Office are ongoing. Among other things, residents, neighbors and possible other witnesses should be questioned.
Sources: Offenburg Police Headquarters, “Badische Latest News”, DPA news agency
