Emergencies
Expert inspects building after devastating explosion
Firefighters extinguish an apartment building in Essen from a turntable ladder. photo
© Markus Gayk/dpa
After the detonation in an apartment building in Essen, traces are secured. Was it an accident, intentional or negligent arson?
Traces should be secured in order to reconstruct what happened and determine the cause. According to the police, an accident is just as likely a cause as intentional or negligent arson. The questioning of witnesses is also ongoing.
On Saturday evening there was an explosion in the ground floor apartment, which was heated with gas. The house and the adjacent street were devastated. Large parts of the house were ablaze. A resident jumped out of the window from the second floor. She was taken to a clinic with serious burn injuries and her condition stabilized there.
The resident of the ground floor apartment was initially missing on Sunday. It later turned out that there was a dead person under the rubble. The identification of the body is ongoing, it said on Tuesday.