Apartment fire displaces residents in Bad Schwalbach

6 residents suffered minor injuries when a basement fire spread smoke through an apartment building in Bad Schwalbach, western Germany, on Saturday, according to firefighters cited by WELT and hessenschau. Thirteen residents were affected and the building was declared temporarily uninhabitable. The other seven residents escaped physical injury, the fire service said.

Emergency crews were called to the apartment block on Aarstraße on Saturday afternoon. Thick smoke was already coming from every floor when firefighters reached the scene, the reports said. Crews found the source of the fire in a basement storage compartment. The alert prompted a large operation involving fire and rescue services from the surrounding district. The emergency response concentrated on evacuating people from upper floors and locating the source of the smoke.

Two occupants were brought to safety using ladders. One had been trapped on the top floor and was rescued with an aerial ladder, while another was brought down from a roofed entrance area. Firefighters also saved a cat. The rescue operation involved around 130 emergency personnel, according to the fire department. The use of the aerial ladder was necessary to reach a resident who could not leave the attic-level accommodation unaided. The second person was waiting on a projecting roof section.

The city provided emergency accommodation for the affected residents, who could not immediately return to their homes. Emergency pastoral-care staff attended as well. The six people with minor injuries were among the thirteen residents affected; the others were not physically injured, according to hessenschau. The city's response therefore extended beyond extinguishing the fire: arrangements had to be made for every occupant unable to return to the property. The reports did not specify how long the accommodation would be needed.

Police have opened an investigation into how the fire started. Authorities had not released a cause or estimate of financial damage in the accounts reported by WELT and hessenschau. The building's temporary closure leaves the displaced residents dependent on alternative accommodation while its condition is assessed. The reports did not identify a suspected cause, and no one was publicly accused of starting the fire. Police inquiries and any subsequent building inspections were distinct from the immediate rescue operation.