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FIRE

Smoking pensioner dies after wheelchair fire

A 64-year-old woman died after her wheelchair and clothes caught fire while she was smoking a cigarette on a balcony in a Winterthur retirement home, Zurich cantonal police said on Tuesday.

Published: 23 April 2013 22:37 CEST

The incident, which remains under investigation, occurred on Monday at 7pm in the Rosental, an assisted living residence for pensioners, police said in a press release.

The woman was sitting in a wheelchair smoking when her clothes caught fire for reasons not immediately known, according to the release.

She was seriously burned and died a few hours later after being transported to hospital in an ambulance, police said.

Meanwhile, an employee who attempted to put the fire out was also injured.

She was still in hospital being treated for “moderately severe” burns on Tuesday, police said.

Members of the Winterthur fire department, alerted by employees of the retirement home, arrived on the scene and extinguished the blaze.

The fire investigation service of the Zurich cantonal police force is investigating the cause of the conflagration.

 

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FIRE

Why have there been so many fires in Copenhagen this year?

Thursday’s fire at Denmark’s tax ministry follows a blaze at the historic Old Stock Exchange and several fires at the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk on the outskirts of Copenhagen.

Published: 27 June 2024 15:11 CEST
Why have there been so many fires in Copenhagen this year?

A fire broke out on Thursday morning on the roof of the building which houses Denmark’s Tax Ministry in central Copenhagen, which fire services in the capital were able to put out shortly afterwards.

The Tax Ministry fire is at least the fifth high-profile blaze in and around Copenhagen since April, following three at different buildings owned by pharma giant Novo Nordisk and the devastating fire which turned parts of the historic Old Stock Exchange (Børsen) to rubble.

The high number of fires occurring within a relatively short period appears to be down to no more than chance, Jens Kastvig, an expert with the Danish Society of Engineers said to newswire Ritzau.

“There’s always a risk that a fire can break out in a building,” Kastvig said, noting that the average annual fire rate is around one per 100,000 to 150,000 square metre of building.

“That could be anything from a smaller to a larger fire,” he said.

Kastvig said that he initially guessed the Tax Ministry fire was the result of renovation work.

Both Børsen and the Novo Nordisk buldings were also undergoing renovations at the time of their fires. This increases the risk of fire breaking out in a more flammable material such as bitumen waterproofing, or a fire otherwise related to the ongoing work.

No renovations were ongoing at the Tax Ministry however, the building’s owner ATP Ejendomme has confirmed.

“The fire services are busy at the moment. But I hope it’s a coincidence,” Kastvig said.

Tim Ole Sørensen of the Copenhagen Fire Service, Hovedstadens Beredskab, said on Thursday that there was no suggestion that the fires were related.

“There’s nothing that indicates any form of connection at all to us, and we are talking about very different businesses and types of building,” he said.

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