Three Women Die in Apartment Block Fire in Sofia

Three women have died after a fire broke out overnight in the 'Svoboda' district of Sofia. One man has been admitted to the Pirogov emergency hospital with burns, and two families have been evacuated from the building.

Smoke and strange noises woke residents of Block 5 in the Svoboda neighbourhood during the night.

Dobrinka Kostova, a neighbour, said:
“At 3am I felt that something was exploding. I didn’t dare open the door because it was dark. Our flat was full of smoke and I looked out through the kitchen – it was terrifying, I’ve never seen anything like it. From the second to the fifth floor everything was smoke and fire.”

The fire broke out in an apartment on the second floor. The man living there tried to extinguish the flames.

Inspector Bogomil Nikolov, duty officer at the Sofia Fire Safety and Civil Protection Service, said:
“According to his account, he woke up, smelled smoke, tried to put the fire out, but realised he could not cope and ran outside, leaving the door open, which caused the stairwell to fill with smoke.”

Dobrinka Kostova added:
“I spoke to him. He said there was a laptop and a phone plugged in in the room, but he said, ‘I don’t know where it came from, I fell asleep in the living room and it started to smell.’ He was completely covered in soot and very shaken.”

Smoke from the burning apartment spread through the entire stairwell. Neighbours attempted to evacuate using the stairs. The victims – a 75-year-old mother and her two daughters, aged 51 and 47 – lived on the fourth floor and tried to escape from the flames.

“They found them on the stairwell,” Ms Kostova said.
“One was almost down to the second floor, but they said she had fallen and hit her head. One had fallen inside the flat, another in front of the apartment, and the third on the second floor.”

Two families were evacuated from the building, one of them with a baby.

“Why did you have to be evacuated?”
“Because everyone went out.”

“You were at home, where are you going now?”
“To relatives.”

The cause of the fire has yet to be established. The man from whose apartment the fire started has been admitted to the toxicology unit at Pirogov hospital with facial burns and smoke inhalation.

Photos:BTA