Emergency services, ambulance and police rushed to the fire, which started around 14.10 in an apartment on Södra Järnvägsgatan.
According to the emergency services, six people are affected, and two were taken by ambulance to the hospital in Sundsvall.
– The apartment is now extinguished and we are working to ensure that it has not progressed further and is venting smoke, says Fredrik Lindqvist, officer on duty at rescue region Mittnorrland.
Smoke-filled stairwell
There has been heavy smoke from the affected apartment, and the stairwell has been full of smoke so the house was evacuated.
– I have no information yet on how it started, but from what I understand, only one apartment was affected, says Fredrik Lindqvist.
The hope is that the other apartments will be habitable when the effort is complete, around 5:30 p.m.
– The fire may have started in connection with cooking – that is an investigative hypothesis in any case, says Per Bjurström, commander at the police command centre.
One deceased – serious injuries to another
Region Västernorrland announced during the afternoon that the two injured are adults, one of whom was treated for life-threatening injuries at Sundsvall Hospital. The other has serious injuries and has been moved to another hospital for specialist care.
In the evening, the region states that the most seriously injured person has died. The next of kin have been notified, confirms the police’s on-call preliminary investigation manager Ingemar Vikström.
– The deceased is a man in his 80s. The second is a man in his 40s.
The preliminary investigation is classified as arson to investigate what happened. The police have cordoned off the scene of the fire for a technical investigation.