Solar panels on an office building near the city centre of Brussels caught fire on Tuesday, the region's fire brigade confirmed. All people in the building were safely evacuated, and no injuries have been reported.
Brussels firefighters rushed to a seven-storey modern office building on Treurenberg near the Parc metro stop on Tuesday afternoon, reporting that part of the building's façade on the top floor had caught fire. The fire started a little before 14:00. The fire alarm went off and all of the office building occupants were evacuated.
Later in the afternoon, the fire brigade's spokesperson Walter Derieuw confirmed that it was the solar panels that had caught fire.
"The inverter was switched off before the fire was extinguished," he said. "We carried out a partial dismantling to extinguish the insulation and cool the last hot spots."
Credit: Brussels Fire Brigade / The Brussels Times
The fire is now under control and no injuries or smoke intoxications have been reported. However, several people working in the building itself and neighbouring office blocks were sent home because smoke blew inside. It remains unclear how the fire started.
