Goch (dpa / lnw) - The fire brigade in Goch (Kleve district) rescued a young family with a one-year-old son from a residential building that was actually empty and caught fire. When firefighters arrived at the building on Tuesday morning because of "unclear smoke development", the basement was on fire. Because they noticed a ray of light on one of the upper floors, the house, which was already mostly smoky, was searched for people in parallel with the firefighting, the fire brigade said.
A respiratory protection team discovered a 39-year-old man, a 28-year-old woman and a one-year-old boy in a room set up as a bedroom on the third floor. The child was rescued via a turntable ladder, and his parents were led out of the building via the stairwell. Because of the strong smoke, so-called escape hoods with integrated breathing air filters were used, it said.
The young family came to the hospital with suspected smoke inhalation, but was able to leave it again. The public order office of the city of Goch is now taking care of the foreign family, who were apparently staying in the house illegally. No other people were found in the building.
Around 80 emergency services from different fire-fighting trains were busy for around three and a half hours before the fire was extinguished. A fire department spokesman said there had been several fires in the three vacant blocks of flats in the past. Most recently, a fire had to be extinguished there in June. At that time, according to the information, a man was saved from the flames.
The buildings - also known as Belgian houses - are former residences of military personnel, the spokesman for the fire brigade explained to the dpa when asked. After the army withdrew, the apartments were sold as condominiums, but have not been used for a long time due to their dilapidation.
