After a serious fire that killed three people in a nursing home for mentally ill people in Reutlingen, there are still many unanswered questions. Fire investigators from the police want to find answers on Wednesday in the soot-blackened rubble of the apartment for the mentally ill, where the devastating fire broke out the night before.
The reason for the fire was unclear the morning after. "We can't say exactly how the situation came about," said Gerhard Längle, the head of the facility. "But it's a catastrophic situation for our residents and our staff."
The emergency call reached the fire brigade in the evening at 7.43 p.m., six minutes later the first fire engines were at the scene of the fire, said operations manager Martin Reicherter. A person with a soot-blackened face was already sitting in front of the building's front door when the fire department arrived.
The fire had previously broken out in one of the four residential groups in the home, but by the time the fire brigade arrived it had largely gone out and was limited to one room. "The condition of the premises suggested a high level of intensity," said Reicherter. After a first look, he thinks it is possible that the fire could have broken out "in the area of the patient's bed".
They inhaled smoke
According to the chief emergency doctor, a 53-year-old woman and two men, aged 73 and 88, inhaled smoke and died. According to information from the night, a 57-year-old woman was seriously injured, eleven people suffered minor injuries. According to a police spokesman, the situation on site was still dramatic. In the hospital there was then a cautious all-clear, he said early Wednesday morning. According to initial estimates, the amount of damage should be in the six-digit range.
"It was an enormous psychological burden for the squads that were in there," said operations manager Reicherter. "We have alerted our psychological aftercare." "The shock was written all over the face" of the 61 firefighters and around 40 other helpers, said Reutlingen's Mayor Thomas Keck. The SPD politician was also shocked after the fire: "It's a black evening for Reutlingen," he said on Tuesday evening at the scene of the accident.
Like a family
Seven to eight mentally ill people live together in the residential groups of the social-psychiatric care facility as a family and with their own rooms. According to the medical director of the home, it is an integration aid facility for people who are at least 50 years old. They live there for a longer period of time, but according to the city they are comparatively independent.
After the fire, the exact situation in the residential group at the time of the fire is still unclear. The fire brigade and the city state that in addition to the room in which the fire broke out, “20 other doors were opened” and other rooms had to be searched. Since the people lived in their own apartments, they could also lock them, said the Mayor of Reutlingen. It has not yet been clarified whether individual rooms were locked.
The Patient Protection Foundation requires master keys in these facilities, which are deposited in a key safe. This must open automatically when a connected fire alarm system is triggered.
According to the police, there were 37 residents and five nurses in the building at the time the fire broke out. The part of the building affected by the fire is no longer habitable. After examination and treatment, the eleven slightly injured were taken to a psychiatric clinic and cared for there.
