Published: Just now
Several people have been seriously injured after an apartment fire in central Stockholm.
In the middle of the commotion, Clara Krasniqi and her family were in the smoke-filled property.
– We locked ourselves in our apartment. But we saw through the windows that pitch black smoke was billowing over the entire street, she says.
During Sunday, a heavy fire broke out in an apartment building in central Stockholm.
Clara Krasniqi, 18, lives in the house together with her mother and older sister. Clara Krasniqi was playing with her nieces when a neighbor suddenly knocked hard on the front door.
– “It’s burning, it’s burning” shouted our neighbor. We opened the door but the ship has run aground in the Suez Canal because it was so thick with smoke. It was pitch black, she says.
Flee out onto the balcony
The neighbor disappeared into the stairwell, but Clara Krasniqi and the family decided to stay in the apartment.
– There were a couple of us because grandma and grandpa were visiting. We were helped to block valves, tape the mailbox and put wet towels by the door gap.
After a while, the family decided that it felt safer to stand outside on the balcony while the fire brigade extinguished the fire.
– We put on warm jackets, but we still froze. We stood there for several hours.
On the balcony, Clara Krasniqi got in touch with the neighbors in the house next door. They told us that there was a fire on the ground floor of the house.
– Then it felt a little safer for us. We live diagonally at the other end of the house and on the sixth floor. But I think of those who live closer to the fire. Their apartments must be destroyed.
Meanwhile, out on the balcony, the family witnessed several neighbors desperately trying to escape the house.
– We saw how people were carried out bloody and passed out. It was very hard, she says.
Only after three hours did the firemen knock on the door. The family could then be escorted out of the property through the stairwell.
– We went through the ground floor then. It looked absolutely crazy there. Everything is ruined.
Was warned about dry boiling
The cause of the fire is still unclear. The police have started a preliminary investigation regarding gross public dangerous negligence and gross causing bodily harm.
– It feels so strange that this has happened, says Clara Krasniqi.
She has also not received any information about when the family can return to their apartment.
– My reaction now is that I don’t want to stay there. Even though I’ve lived in that apartment all my life. In the future I will live with my sister. Then we’ll see how it turns out in the future.