A fire broke out in an apartment building in Viršuliškės district of Vilnius on Tuesday. The fire has spread to at least four apartments, according to the Fire and Rescue Department.
An explosion and fire were reported in an apartment building in Viršuliškės at 11:15 on Tuesday. The cause of the explosion is not yet known.
Firefighters have been working on the scene for several hours. Five people have been taken to a hospital.
“The most painful thing is that we have information that a child may still be inside,” said Vytautas Nenartavičius, Head of Operations of the Fire Brigade.
“We cannot fully extinguish the fire because the partitions have collapsed and there is a risk of collapse of the building in that sector, so we are not carrying out intensive work in the fire zone,” he added.
A few hours later, firefighters also found one badly burnt body in the apartment block.
“We can see that there is a human body, but we cannot yet confirm the identity or the gender,” Donatas Gurevičius, a spokesperson for the Fire and Rescue Department, told BNS.
According to him, the body was spotted among collapsed structures.
According to Edita Zdanevičienė, a representative of the Fire and Rescue Department, the fire was localised at 15:33. However, firefighters will be working at the site for at least several more hours.
around 30 people have been evacuated from the apartment building in Viršuliškės, said Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas.
“The evacuees are now sheltering in a nearby kindergarten, where they are receiving essential support and information. Vilnius City Municipality is taking care of the temporary accommodation of the residents,” he wrote on Facebook.
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