Fire at Evere Care Home Sends 10 Residents to Hospital

A fire broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning in a hallway on the second floor of the Azalées residential care home in Evere, Brussels. The Brussels fire brigade confirmed the incident, which led to ten residents being hospitalized for smoke inhalation and 15 others requiring temporary accommodation.

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We immediately scaled up our response because it was a fire in a nursing home.

The fire alarm at Résidence Azalées was activated around 4:55 AM. Firefighters responded promptly, scaling up their response due to the nature of the facility. Upon arrival, they found a small fire in a second-floor corridor, which was filled with smoke. The entire corridor was evacuated, and ten residents were taken to the hospital. While most suffered minor complaints, one resident was in a more serious condition, though not in life-threatening danger.

Firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze quickly, attributing the success to preventative measures such as smoke extraction systems and fire doors in the modern building. The intervention was completed around 7:45 AM. However, the smoke caused significant damage to the corridor in that wing, rendering it uninhabitable.

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It was a small fire, but the hallway was filled with smoke. We evacuated the entire corridor, and 10 residents were taken to the hospital with symptoms of smoke inhalation.

Consequently, 15 residents will need to be relocated to another facility within the same group, Novadia. Residents on other floors and in unaffected sections of the second floor were able to remain in their rooms as their areas sustained no damage. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

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The preventative measures, such as smoke extraction and fire doors, worked well. It is a modern building.