A fire broke out Friday morning in an apartment on Rue du Trône in Ixelles, leaving one person with minor injuries, according to the Brussels Fire Brigade.
The entire three-story building was evacuated and declared uninhabitable. Emergency responders, emergency medical services, and police from the Brussels-Capital/Ixelles district arrived on the scene around 4:40 a.m.
Upon arrival, they found a fully developed fire in a second-floor apartment. The first responders attacked the fire from the outside before entering through the stairwell. The fire was quickly brought under control.
The occupant of the affected apartment was waiting for help on the street. He suffered minor injuries to his hands and was taken by the SMUR (Mobile Emergency Medical Service) to Saint-Pierre Hospital for further examination. The other residents had already left the building on their own before emergency responders arrived.
The affected apartment was completely destroyed. The apartment on the floor above sustained significant smoke damage, while the apartments below were affected by water used to extinguish the fire.
The fire’s spread toward the ledge was also contained. After inspecting the scene and neighbouring buildings, no residual danger was found. The cause of the fire remains to be determined.
According to firefighters, the absence of a smoke detector and the fact that the door to the burning apartment remained open during the evacuation contributed to the spread of smoke into the stairwell and toward the upper floors.
Firefighters remind the public that smoke detectors are mandatory and that closing the door to a room on fire can significantly slow the spread of flames and toxic smoke.
