Sunday 17 January 2021

Police admitted bad luck
Five killed in a fire in a Norwegian hut

It suddenly starts burning at night in a hut in the far north of Norway. A man can save himself and seek help after walking a kilometer. But there were other people in the hut – including many children.

Five people died in a night fire in a hut in Norway. As the responsible police announced on Sunday evening, the last two of the five initially missing were found in the late afternoon. So far, none of them have been identified.

After a hut caught fire in a remote community in the far north of the Scandinavian country, five people were reported missing, including four minors under 16. Police had feared hours earlier that all five missing persons had failed to escape the flames. A man was able to flee a burning hut in Andøy municipality on the Vesterålen Islands on Saturday morning. According to media reports, however, he had to walk barefoot for several kilometers before meeting neighbors alerting him to the emergency number.

The cause of the fire remained unclear over the weekend. Local police chief Per Eric Hagen said on Saturday that it was nothing but a tragic accident. Police later announced that there was no other reason to believe anything other than the accident. Vesterålen is right next to the much better known Lofoten in the far north of Norway. The man and the five missing persons all came from the Wagan municipality in Lofoten.