Heavy fire at school in Oslo – gym totally destroyed

Toppåsen School in Oslo.Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

Heavy fire at school in Oslo – gym totally destroyed

124 children were evacuated when a fierce fire erupted in the gym at Toppåsen School in Oslo. Nobody was injured.

 

The flames stood out from the building on Wednesday afternoon, and smoke was visible all the way to the centre of Oslo.

-124 children were evacuated from the activity school. The school day was over, so they were the only ones left at school when the fire broke out. Three have been checked out by health personnel, but are unharmed, says Christian Krohn Engeseth. Engeseth is Operations Manager in the Oslo police.

The first notice about the fire came at 2:36 pm, and around 5:30 pm the fire department notified that it was extinguished.

– There will still be a lot of activity involving the emergency services at the scene for a while, the police tweets.

13 fire trucks

The fire departments from Oslo and Follo moved to the site in force involving a total of 13 fire trucks. The gym was early considered as lost, but the fire also spread to a nearby building. Extinguishing was therefore concentrated on reducing the damage to that building.

Neighbours of the school were asked to close their doors and windows due to lots of smoke in the area.

The school informed parents and guardians after the pupils were evacuated.

– The children were ushered up to the ball park where they were taken care of by adults and consecutively picked up by parents, says Rector Stein Olav Febakke NRK.

Flash fire

Currently, the police do not know the cause of the fire, but say they have obtained witness information on-site and that they are working to verify the statements.

– We were notified of the fire at 14.36. The message was that it was starting to burn in a wall. When the fire department arrived, the gym was completely on fire, says Engeseth.

At 3 pm the fire began to spread to the building next door. Toppåsen primary school is located in Holmlia in the district of Søndre

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today