Swiss police announced on Friday (August 21) that two apartment buildings caught fire overnight from Thursday (20th) to Friday morning, leaving 5 people missing and 19 injured.
According to reports from various media outlets, the first fire broke out in the town of Thusis in the Graubunden canton in eastern Switzerland.
The Graubunden canton police stated in a press release on Friday that just past midnight, a multi-story building combining residential and restaurant units in Thusis town suddenly went up in flames, with the “entire building engulfed by the fire.” Approximately 100 firefighters were deployed to the scene for rescue efforts.
The statement mentioned that “due to the collapse of internal staircases, rescue personnel had to use cranes to open the roof layer by layer for search and rescue.”
Authorities reported that the fire resulted in 5 people missing and 8 injured, including 2 in serious condition, while 14 others managed to escape. The injured have been transported to hospitals in various locations in Graubunden canton and Zurich.
Preliminary indications suggest that the fire started spreading from the second floor of the building. Local police and the prosecutor’s office are investigating the cause of the fire, with search and cleanup efforts still ongoing.
A photo released by the police showed a multi-story apartment building engulfed in thick smoke, flames bursting from several high-level windows directly into the night sky, with the roof ablaze.
Another fire occurred later on Thursday evening in the city of Schaffhausen, located in the north near the German border.
Local authorities stated in a press release that “a fire broke out in the kitchen of an apartment building in Schaffhausen city, resulting in 11 injuries, with 9 individuals already hospitalized for treatment.” The statement also mentioned that among the injured was a police officer.
Police mentioned that firefighters successfully prevented the fire from spreading to other units of the apartment building.