Overview

• Emergency calls began around 4:20 a.m. on Kleine Stäubenstraße in Essen’s Südostviertel as flames from multiple waste containers reached a residential building.
• Fire crews used a turntable ladder and portable ladders to extract 13 people, including children, from upper floors as the stairwell filled with smoke.
• Roughly 25 responders from professional and volunteer units brought the blaze under control and ventilated the building.
• About 25 square meters of the façade were opened to reach smoldering hotspots, and the state environmental agency LANUV collected samples due to possible asbestos.
• A Ruhrbahn bus sheltered residents in the cold and, after safety measures and ventilation, occupants were able to return to their apartments; police have opened a cause-of-fire investigation.