An apartment in Beroun burned down at night, one person died. Dozens evacuated
“On Sunday before half past three in the morning, the emergency line of the Central Bohemian fire department received a report of a fire in an eleven-story apartment building in Beroun. The informant stated that he could see flames coming from the windows on the upper floor of the building,” said regional fire department spokesman Jan Sýkora.
The operations center immediately declared the second level of fire alarm because there were fears that there were people in the apartment. Professional units from Beroun and Kladno went to the event, as well as volunteers from the villages of Hýskov, Chrustenice, Chyňava, Králův Dvůr and Zdice.
“Shortly after half past three, the first firefighters arrived on the scene and immediately began an investigation. At first glance, it was clear that the situation was very serious, as high flames shot from two windows on the tenth floor and the fire approached the upper apartment along the facade. The commander ordered the evacuation of the entire facility. The next sent an attack stream in front of the burning apartment to find out as quickly as possible whether anyone is inside,” Sýkora described.
When the first fire department arrived at the front door of the house, they found a man without signs of life. He had injuries typical of a fall from a great height.
“One man suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the doctor pronounced him dead. There were no other injuries at the scene,” Monika Nováková, spokeswoman for the rescue service, told iDNES.cz. The police have ordered an autopsy on the dead seventy-year-old man.
Paramedics had a medical and paramedic crew on the scene. They did not help with direct evacuation, but were ready to help any other injured residents of the house on the spot.
Evacuation of 77 people
“So the priority was to save everyone else and to get the fire under control as quickly as possible,” said Sýkora’s spokesperson. Firefighters requested an evacuation bus from Slané. They assisted the police at the scene. A total of 77 people evacuated from the house, most of them voluntarily. However, the firefighters saved six people from direct danger.
Firefighters extinguished from high-altitude equipment and from the corridor of the house. The localization took more than two hours. After the extinguishing work was completed, the firefighters deployed positive pressure ventilation to ventilate the combustion products that were in the common areas of the building.
Subsequently, with an industrial vacuum cleaner, they vacuumed the water from the damaged apartment and the apartments below it, where the water managed to flow.
“What exactly happened in the apartment is not yet clear, as the investigation is still ongoing in cooperation between the Police of the Czech Republic, investigators of the causes of the fires and experts from the Technical Institute in Prague. The preliminary was set at six crowns, with the fact that the damage is millions, that the final damage may be higher,” added Sýkora.
A police dog handler is now going to the scene with a dog that will search for accelerants of the fire, i.e. the place where the fire started. “What happened, whether the fire was started intentionally, due to negligence, whether the man jumped out of the window, all this is now being investigated by Berun criminal investigators,” regional police spokeswoman Michaela Richterová told iDNES.cz.