Overview
- The Halle blaze ignited around 1:37 a.m. in a rental apartment on Linzer Straße and spread quickly through the building.
- Twelve residents were evacuated in Halle, one victim died in hospital, and two injured were reported as an 87-year-old man and an 86-year-old woman.
- Police in Halle opened a death investigation and ordered a court autopsy at the Martin-Luther University forensic institute as the cause remains under review.
- Damage to the Halle complex is estimated in the mid six-figure range, and a municipal bus temporarily accommodated evacuees before nearby tenants returned.
- In Gelsenkirchen-Horst around 1:20 a.m., a room fire likely triggered by an electric blanket burned a living-room couch, the tenant was hospitalized, eleven others were assessed for smoke exposure, and firefighters ended the hour-long operation after deploying two aerial ladders and high-pressure ventilation.