Catastrophic fire: Norway does not remember such a thing since the Second World War

More than 100 houses were destroyed during a fire in southern Norway, hundreds of people were evacuated, there is no information about the victims. This is reported by the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

"As far as I know, this is the largest fire in the residential sector in Norway since the Second World War. This is a disaster," said the head of the fire operation Frode Prestus.

The fire service has not yet managed to bring the fire on the Krokstad River under control, he noted. According to him, the risk of spread must be reduced, since "there are smouldering and small fires in this area."

Now five fire trucks are working in a residential area. The armed forces and civil defense are assisting firefighters, and the police are also there.

"Since then, the fire has spread to several terraced houses and to the area in this area. More than 100 houses were completely damaged, and several hundred people were evacuated. No missing residents were reported. Two people were taken to hospital with smoke injuries. One of them is from civil defense. A firefighter was also slightly injured, and eight policemen inhaled smoke," the note says.

According to the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB), six helicopters are extinguishing forest fires that broke out on the Krogstad River. Another seven are in reserve in southern Norway. During the extinguishing, about 800,000 liters of water were dropped from helicopters. About a hundred firefighters from several fire and rescue services and 17 different fire stations helped in the work over the past day.

"This is the largest recorded fire of this kind that we at DSB have recorded in modern history. Fortunately, we have not received reports that anyone has been seriously injured or killed," said DSB director Lars Jakob Hayim.

Ruben Dobler Strand, a fire researcher and lecturer at the Westland University of Applied Sciences, told NRK that more than a hundred families lost their homes due to a fire, this has not happened for a hundred years. This is probably the largest figure in modern history, if we count the number of people left without a home.

"You can use the word catastrophe when there is such a large fire," said, in turn, the mayor of Drammen municipality, Kjell Arne Hermansen.

According to him, 400 people are registered in the evacuation center of the municipality. They are housed in the evacuation center of the municipality at the Scandic Ambassadeur Hotel and other hotels in the city. And many of the homeless were sheltered by friends and relatives.

According to data on Saturday morning, there is no risk of spreading to new buildings, the fire service is trying to localize the fire from the night.

"There are several forest fires in the area. They were allowed to burn last night. We took the brigades out of there because of a lot of lightning and thunderstorms in the morning. The plan for the future is to strengthen the fire service and start extinguishing the fire in the depths of the fire area," an employee of one of the fire stations told NRK.

The Ministry of Justice reported earlier in a press release that the Minister of Justice and Public Safety Astri Aas-Hansen and the head of the Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB) Lars Jakob Heim will travel to Drammen on Saturday morning in connection with a major fire on the Krokstad River.

According to Reuters, more than a hundred houses were destroyed by fire in the residential area of Krok Stadelva in Drammen, a city located about 40 km southwest of the Norwegian capital Oslo. The fire broke out on Friday afternoon in a residential area with terraced houses. The fire instantly spread from one building to another due to the strong wind. Thick black smoke enveloped the entire area. NRK noted the day before that explosions were heard in the area, so the authorities decided to evacuate the residents.

As EADaily reported, more than 50 houses were destroyed in a fire in Drammen in southern Norway, the police evacuated hundreds of people, there is no information about the victims. This was reported by the Polish radio station RMF24. Radio calls the fire "catastrophic."