Six bodies found in elevator after fire at Brussels building
Six bodies were pulled from a Brussels elevator after fire raced up a renovation site’s lift shaft, leaving questions about evacuation and emergency plans.
Six bodies were recovered from one of the elevators at the Oxy building in central Brussels after a fire broke out on the second floor Tuesday morning, and six construction workers were missing. Firefighters were alerted at 7.50 a.m., and the blaze moved into the lift shaft of the renovation project on Place de Brouckère before being brought under control a little over an hour later.
The building was not yet permanently occupied and was undergoing a renovation intended to turn it into offices, apartments and a hotel. About 250 construction workers were on site, two were taken to hospital with severe burns, and a firefighter was treated for heatstroke before being discharged.
Access to the shaft was limited and one of the building’s two elevator cabins could only be opened partway, while another lift remained unreachable for hours as civil protection crews worked through debris. The Brussels Labour Inspectorate activated the site’s internal emergency plan, medical intervention plan and psychosocial support measures for evacuated workers, who were cared for in a staff canteen nearby.
Investigators had not determined the cause, and the labour prosecutor opened a criminal inquiry while officials worked to identify the dead. King Philippe and Prime Minister Bart De Wever visited the scene later in the day.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
