A microlight plane crashed into the roof of a house in western Germany on Saturday, leaving three people dead, including the mother of a young child, firefighters said.
The accident, the cause of which has not been determined, took place in Wesel, a city on North Rhine-Westphalia, according to local police.
DPA
DPA
The small plane crashed into an apartment built under the roof of the house, where a woman and her two-year-old child lived, causing a fire which gutted the place.
The mother was among the victims, along with two people aboard the plane, firefighters said.
The child was only slightly injured.
DPA
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.
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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