The largest residential fire in modern Norwegian history has destroyed more than 100 homes and forced hundreds of people to evacuate, authorities said Saturday.
The fire in southern Norway started in a townhouse in the city of Drammen around 3:30 p.m. Friday, police said.
It then spread through the area and into nearby forests. Thick black smoke covered the area, located some 50 km (30 miles) west of Oslo.
Firefighters on Saturday morning continued their efforts to bring the blaze under control.
More than 80 firefighters worked to put out the fire, while helicopters were deployed to douse the flames with water.
Finn Roine, a resident of Drammen, told Sky News: “I got a call from my daughter saying that three apartment blocks below her were on fire. A few minutes later, my son and I drove up here to see what was happening.
“When we got here it looked brighter because the fire was lower down, but it spread incredibly fast. Then we saw the flames take one row of houses after another. Then I saw my daughter’s house. It has burned down now, and it’s still burning. There are still flames there.”
The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection said Saturday that it was the largest fire of its kind in modern times.
NRK, Norway’s public broadcaster, said hundreds of people went to an evacuation center.
No residents have been reported missing, police said.
Police incident commander Frode Presthus said: “The fire is spreading into the forest, so it has become a larger wildfire moving south. The plan is for the fire service, together with the Civil Defence, to meet the wildfire from the south and extinguish it northwards towards the fire. That’s what they’re going to try now. But as I said, the fire is still not under control. It is still moving.”
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, but a Drammen Red Cross worker said it had spread quickly due to the weather.
“It says something about the heat we’ve had lately. It’s been very dry. So once the fire started, it spread quickly. That’s what we’ve seen,” Thomas Evjen told Reuters.
