Fire in Viseu's historic centre kills man, 28, injures five

A fire tore through an old building in the historic centre of Viseu, northern Portugal, late on Friday night, killing a 28-year-old man and injuring five other people. Rui Nogueira, commander of the Viseu Fire Sappers (Bombeiros Sapadores), told the Lusa news agency the man was pulled from inside the property but was declared dead at the scene.

The fire broke out at a property on Rua Senhora da Boa Morte, in Viseu's old town, Nogueira said. The regional civil protection command for the Viseu and Dão Lafões area said the alert came in late on Friday night and that firefighters declared the blaze extinguished in the early hours of Saturday. Nogueira said the fire started with considerable intensity and spread quickly at first, before firefighters managed to confine the flames to the ground floor of the four-storey building, which had never been renovated.

Five people suffered minor injuries, Nogueira said, and all appeared to follow an initial explosion. Two were police officers with the Polícia de Segurança Pública who were first to reach the scene and have since been discharged from hospital. Nogueira said the toll was limited thanks to "the professionalism and competence of the security officers." The other three injured were the homeowner, a relative of the man who died, and two of his friends.

In total, fifty emergency workers and 18 vehicles took part in the operation, drawn from the Viseu volunteer and sapper fire brigades, the national medical emergency institute INEM, the PSP, Viseu's municipal police and Portugal's judiciary police. The judiciary police were at the scene to carry out the standard procedures for such cases, Nogueira said, in order to establish how the fire started.