A fire that broke out at 04:30 Thursday morning on Tabernacle Street in Shoreditch, in central London, required 100 firefighters and at one point up to 20 fire trucks before it was brought under control at 11:30. The London Fire Brigade says that fire crews will remain on the scene for the day. The fire broke out in a building that houses a restaurant/bar and offices, and it severely damaged the third floor and roof, as well as causing damage to the other floors.
Lyss, canton Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Twenty-six people were injured in Lyss, canton Bern, after a fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday 25 February at a centre for asylum seekers. Cantonal police say there is no reason at this stage of the investigation to suspect criminal activity. The fire broke out shortly after 04:00, waking residents of the centre. Many of them appear to have panicked and jumped out of windows rather than taking the emergency exits, which were open. Several of the injured suffered pelvic fractures from hitting the hard ground when they jumped.
The center has a population of 135 people from 30 countries.
Links to other sites: ats/romandie (Fre), Bern police (Fre)
Andrew Joseph Stack, 53, appears to have flown his Piper Cherokee plane into an IRS (tax authority) building in Austin, Texas intentionally, say authorities in the city, after setting his house on fire 18 February. Two people died in the crash into a building where 200 people work, and two others were injured. Firefighters had contained most of a fire started by the crash but were working during the night to put it out completely. Stack’s web site appears to reflect a long-held grudge against the US government and the IRS in particular.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Hotel Terminus across from the Cornavin main train station in Geneva caught fire at 03:00 Monday and 50 firefighters were called to the scene. Monday morning traffic in the area has been rerouted, with only one lane open, causing serious traffic jams in the area. Public transport is working normally, say police.
Some 90 residents of the hotel were evacuated and three were treated in hospital for smoke inhalation, but there were no serious injuries. The cause of the fire, which appears to have started in a technical services room.
Meyrin, Geneva (GenevaLunch) - The driver who died when her car caught fire late Sunday night in Meyrin has not been officially identified, while police await the results of an autopsy on the person they describe only as a 72-year-old woman. According to the Tribune de Geneve the driver was from Vaud, a musician who had just given a concert, followed by a small celebration, and she was heading home to Begnins.
The circumstances surrounding the accident remain unclear, with police saying she drove up onto a pedestrian area and into a post in the area between the town hall and the Forum Meyrin. For reasons not yet understood, she appears to have left her foot on the gas pedal while the car was blocked, causing the tires to explode and the fire to start.
Russia is holding a day of mourning for the 112 people, now all identified, who died when a club caught fire Friday night 4 December in the city of Perm in the Urals. The fire appears to have been started by fireworks inside the club, officials say. Some deaths were caused by inhaling deadly plastic fumes, others by the smoke and flames. Four people are under arrest but a fifth is fighting for his life, one of the 123 injured who are hospitalized. The government has banned club fireworks and is reviewing safety legislation.
Links to other sites: Moscow Times, Ria Novosti
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Friday often brings some of the world’s stranger bits of news, from amusing to weird to hard to believe:
- Young people who are not yet of voting age, in Geneva, Switzerland erected the first new and relatively small minaret, defying the 29 November popular vote that bans them: in the Place Neuve, out of cardboard. Institute of Race Relations, UK (Ed. note: here is a design for homemade miniature cardboard minarets, in case they suddenly sell out in Swiss shops)
- Manchester, England: a 29-year-old man was shot dead when he and friends were confronted outside the money exchange where he worked. Police say he was robbed for cash and for his laptop. A 20-year-old is in custody. Guardian, UK
- A heavily drunk man in the Perm Territory, in the Russian Urals, was saved from flames by his cat. He fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand and when the apartment burst into flames his cat leaped onto him, scratching his face until the man came to and phoned the fire department. Ria Novosti, Russia
- Read more…
Update 11:10 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A Lausanne city bus caught fire at 09:30 Friday morning near the entrance to the autoroute (Bourdonette) in Lausanne, and is causing traffic jams as fire fighters worked to put out the blaze, reports 20 Minutes (Fre). Police are not yet releasing information about the cause of the fire and 24 Heures (Fre) reports that the driver led off the one passenger on the parked bus.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A fire has broken out in an electric station near the central train station in Lausanne, according to several local media. Electricity has been cut in the area although trains continue to operate. The fire appears to be in a station under the Edipresse tower on Avenue de la Gare, up the hill about 150 metres from the station. Traffic in the area is reported to be congested. The office building has been evacuated.
Links to other sites: 20 Minutes, LFM radio
A little less water than usual in Lake Geneva near Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The fire that began in Lausanne Thursday 23 September in the storage space of an archiving firm was finally under control late Tuesday, but it continues to smolder, say officials. More than 300 firefighters from around the region have been involved in the battle against the flames and smoke, with the army called in over the weekend to provide relief and more equipment.
Forty-five soldiers from the catastrophe division put in 48 hours, providing a 1.5 km waterhose from Lake Geneva up the hill to the Rue de Provence, to ensure an adequate water supply to douse the fire. The hose delivered 8,000 litres of water a minute for 27 hours straight.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Firemen were still fighting a fire after 24 hours, at a storage space where some 50,000 industrial companies’ archives are kept by the company Secur-archiv, 24 Heures reported late Friday afternoon 25 September.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A fire broke out in a warehouse storing used wood on the route des Jeunes, Lancy, metres away from the la Praille stadium. The first sent clouds of smoke billowing into the sky Monday afternoon 24 August. One hundred emergency personnel were mobilized, the route des Jeunes was closed to traffic, and the autoroute was closed in one direction for 30 minutes. One fireman was evacuated because of the heat.
Etoy fruit bar, scene of explosion 4 August
Nyon and Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A gas explosion at the recently closed Fruit Bar, a landmark truck stop in Etoy, near Lausanne Tuesday afternoon seriously injured the owner and an employee. In Brassus, canton Vaud, first reports that a refrigerator caught fire Tuesday, causing considerable damage to a chalet, may have been incorrect.
Granges, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One of the largest and most popular garden centres in Valais, Le Point Vert, lost its warehouse and storage area to fire Sunday afternoon 12 July. Employees were working in the building earlier in the day, but no one was there at the time of the fire and there were no injuries. It is the second major fire in the area in a month, with a lumberyard going up in flames 8 June only a couple kilometres away.
Seven officials in Sonora, Mexico have been charged with negligent homicide following the deaths of 47 children, with 17 more still in hospital, many of them seriously injurerd. A fire in early June trapped the children in a daycare centre. The officials were responsible for the centre as well as a warehouse next door where cars, tires and state paperwork were stored. An electrical short in the roof of the warehouse, or an overheated air-conditioning system are suspected causes of the fire. BBC, Wall Street Journal
Greenland, next leg of the trip after Nova Scotia, Canada
Halifax, Canada (romandie/ats, Fre) – American Airlines flight 64 from New York’s JFK to Zurich Tuesday night 9 March was forced to land in Halifax after a fire started in the toilets. No one was injured. The fire appears to have been caused by a short-circuit in the toilet fan’s motor.
Granges, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A huge cloud hung over the Rhone between Sion and Sierre Saturday and drew crowds from miles around as a lumber yard caught fire and burned nearly to the ground. Dozens of police and firefighters from several towns fought the blaze for three hours and tried to keep crowds away, blocking off several roads in the area. Employees were working at the time but managed to escape and no one was injured.
The lumber yard is near a penitentiary, whose roads are signposted with warnings to keep off, but narrow country lanes around it were crawling with spectators Saturday as the fire roared.
Police and fire officials in Mexico are investigating a blaze that took the lives of at least 31 young children in a Mexican day care centre in Hermosillo. The centre is next to an automobile warehouse that may have had an electrical short circuit. The Los Angeles Times reports that “Dozens more children were injured in Friday’s blaze, and Mexican authorities said some would be transferred to a special pediatric burn unit at Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento for treatment. Other injured children were being treated in hospitals in Hermosillo, the capital of the border state of Sonora, across from Arizona.”
Update 27 May Lake Tuerler, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – Seventeen people were injured, one seriously, when several gas canisters at a campground midway between Zurich and Zug exploded, causing a major fire. Some of the caravans reportedly caught fire, provoking the explosions as a result. Eleven of the injured were hospitalized, according to 20 Minutes, and millions of francs in damages were caused to the caravans. Police said late Tuesday that a gas leak in one of the caravan lines appears to have caused the fire.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – A fire broke out in a ground floor apartment in Grand-Lancy, Thursday 30 April. The flames in the stairwell trapped an adolescent on the second floor. A neighbour heard the cries and braved the smoke and heat to bring the young person to safety. Firefighters evacuated six people from the building. Three were admitted to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.
Tour-de-Peilz, Vaud (20 Minutes, Fre) – Four boats were destroyed and two others damaged shortly after 02:00 Wednesday morning, and police are investigating reports that several youths were seen leaving the area 15 minutes before the fire was noticed.
A fire at a hostel for the homeless in the Baltic Sea town of Kamien Pomorski, Poland, has killed at least 18 people, with later reports saying 21, and another 20 people were hospitalized with injuries. Police and firefighters are still searching for survivors and bodies. The cause of the fire is not yet known, but flawed construction may have played a role in the rapid spread of the fire. Euro News, New Zealand Herald
Geneva, Switzerland (TSR, Fre with photos, Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – Police in Geneva are investigating an odd incident Sunday. Two burglars broke into a clothing store at 34, rue de Paquis, just as the owner dropped by, and a fire in the store, as well as the hairdresser’s next door, led to a major blaze within minutes.
Spreitenbach, Aargau, Switzerland (Le Temps/ats, Fre) – A 10-year-old boy set his apartment alight when he tried to douse a fire in the kitchen by pouring water on it. He had put oil into a pan to heat it when the pan caught fire. The boy is reportedly uninjured, but was taken to hospital after a neighbour noticed the smoke and found the boy, who was in shock.
Ten-metre high flames were part of a fire reportedly started by fireworks that were part of China’s Lantern Festival in Beijing 9 February, which destroyed a building in the CCTV complex. A new high-rise Mandarin Oriental Hotel, scheduled to open in 2009, appears to have been destroyed, but no deaths or injuries were reported in the unoccupied building. International Herald Tribune
