Child injured during huge fire in Schiedam; 120 apartments evacuated

A child was injured in a fire in an apartment building on the Burgemeest Gijsenlaan in Schiedam early Saturday morning. Rijmondveilig.nl reported that the child had to be transported to hospital with burn wounds. A total of three people were hospitalized. The entire apartment building with 120 homes had to be temporarily evacuated, the Rotterdam-Rijnmond Security Region said.

The fire broke out shortly after midnight on Saturday. Smoke soon filled the first floor of the apartment building. Due to the evacuation of the 120 homes spread over six floors and the rapid spread of smoke due to the fire, the fire brigade scaled the blaze up to a "very large fire" just after 1 a.m. Rijnmondveilig.nl called on people in the area to give the firefighters space for their work.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze just before 2:30 a.m., clearing all homes of smoke. The evacuated people were then able to return home. Only the residents of the apartment where the fire broke out were unable to return home. According to the fire department, tea lights caused the fire.