North Rhine-Westphalia: Burning cellar shacks trigger the fire brigade

Cologne (dpa / lnw) - A basement fire in an apartment building in Cologne triggered a large-scale operation by the fire brigade early Tuesday morning. A resident of the house had alerted the emergency call because smoke was slowly spreading in her apartment, according to the fire brigade. The search for the source of the fire was initially difficult because of the heavy smoke in the stairwell. It turned out that eight basement shacks were on fire. According to the information, the fire brigade and rescue workers were deployed with 14 vehicles. The occupants of the house were not injured. A firefighter was treated for circulatory problems. The cause of the fire is still unclear.