Fire kills 11 in Austrian retirement home
(Adds spokesman, details)
VIENNA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Eleven people died of smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in a retirement home in the western Austrian town of Egg on Friday, a spokesman for the regional government of Vorarlberg said.
Another six people were injured, three of them seriously, and firefighters were now investigating the cause of the blaze, the spokesman said.
"According to information from fire services the fire started in a room on the first floor at the back of the building," he said.
Television pictures showed the second and third storey of the retirement home engulfed in flames, with heavy smoke billowing around the building.
"This is a catastrophe, it is awful," Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, visiting the region, told reporters in Egg.
Some 250 firemen battled the blaze and 75 Red Cross workers were at the scene, the spokesman said. An official said 23 residents and two carers were in the building when the fire broke out.
The town of Egg, with a population of 3,500, is in the western tip of Austria in the province of Vorarlberg.
The loss of life was the biggest in a blaze in Austria since a funicular train in Kaprun caught fire in a tunnel in November 2000, killing 155 people. (Reporting by Karin Strohecker; editing by Andrew Roche)
VIENNA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Eleven people died of smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in a retirement home in the western Austrian town of Egg on Friday, a spokesman for the regional government of Vorarlberg said.
Another six people were injured, three of them seriously, and firefighters were now investigating the cause of the blaze, the spokesman said.
"According to information from fire services the fire started in a room on the first floor at the back of the building," he said.
Television pictures showed the second and third storey of the retirement home engulfed in flames, with heavy smoke billowing around the building.
"This is a catastrophe, it is awful," Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, visiting the region, told reporters in Egg.
Some 250 firemen battled the blaze and 75 Red Cross workers were at the scene, the spokesman said. An official said 23 residents and two carers were in the building when the fire broke out.
The town of Egg, with a population of 3,500, is in the western tip of Austria in the province of Vorarlberg.
The loss of life was the biggest in a blaze in Austria since a funicular train in Kaprun caught fire in a tunnel in November 2000, killing 155 people. (Reporting by Karin Strohecker; editing by Andrew Roche)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.
Narrow Escape
And Finally... Sky Dining