- In the village center of the Zurich municipality of Elgg, several buildings caught fire on Saturday night.
- According to the Zurich cantonal police, several dozen people were evacuated. Nobody was injured.
- After more than twelve hours, the firefighting operation was completed on Saturday afternoon.
The emergency call about the fire was received at 12:20 a.m., as the Zurich cantonal police wrote in a statement. The house on Obergasse was already fully ablaze when the fire department arrived. According to police, the flames spread to several neighboring buildings.
Due to the heavy smoke and the risk that the fire would spread further, several dozen people were evacuated from neighboring buildings. The police also made the population aware of the dangers via Alertswiss reports.
The amount of damage is still unclear
The fire was brought under control with the help of several fire brigade organizations. Because there were several fire locations, the extinguishing work was challenging. A “few dozen” residents have now been able to return to their apartments. The community organized emergency accommodation for those people whose properties were severely affected by the fire.
The fire caused major, currently unquantifiable material damage to several buildings that were on fire, as well as to neighboring properties and parked vehicles.
In addition to the five to six houses that burned down, other buildings were damaged by the heat or the water used to extinguish the fire. Since the badly affected houses could not yet be entered, the cause of the fire remained unclear.