Firefighters tackled a major fire in the municipality of Uccle in Brussels in the early hours of Monday morning.
The blaze occurred in a restaurant on the ground floor of a building, situated on Rue Xavier De Bue, which also houses several apartments. Although no casualties were reported, the restaurant was completely destroyed.
"On arrival, we found that the occupants had spontaneously evacuated and the restaurant's shopfront had exploded," said Brussels fire brigade spokesperson, Walter Derieuw.
The team extinguished the blaze while ensuring noone remained in the building. "Thanks to the building's compartmentalisation, smoke didn’t spread to the apartments, but the restaurant was completely gutted," explained Derieuw.
The cause of the fire remains undetermined. Following the firefighters' intervention at around 02:30, residents were able to return to their apartments.
Derieuw added that a high-tension power cabin had to be shut down during firefighting operations, causing a temporary blackout in the neighbourhood. Power was restored by Sibelga following the intervention.
Support for the firefighting efforts came from the Marlow police zone (Uccle/Watermael-Boitsfort/Auderghem), which established a safety perimeter.
