SVELVIK (VG) A family of two adults and two children are feared dead after a residential house burned down in Svelvik on Monday night.
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– As it looks, there is unfortunately no hope that anyone has survived the fire, says police station chief at Drammen police station Øyvind Aas in a press release just before 10.30 on Monday.
He also confirms that the family consists of two adults and two minor children.
It was at 02.21 on Monday night that the police reported a large fire in a residential house in the far south of Drammen municipality.
– Flames come out of windows on the ground floor, they wrote then.
During the night, the fire brigade tried for several hours to put out the powerful fire, but just after 5 o’clock the police found that the house had burned down completely.
Then they also wrote that they had not been in contact with the four people registered at the address.
To VG, police station chief Øyvind Aas confirms that the missing are a family of four.
Police fear that the four were inside the house when it burned.
– The time that passes now without us being contacted, means that the concern that they were in the house only intensifies.
Earlier Monday, Aas told VG that they had no indications that the family had been elsewhere.
1 of 4Photo: MATTIS SANDBLAD
– If four people have died in the fire, then this is a deeply tragic incident.
The residents’ next of kin have been notified of the fire.
Principal Kim Flemmos at Tømmerås school, confirms to VG that two of those affected are students at the school. On Monday, the school will be assisted by health personnel in Drammen municipality to handle the situation.
– We try to keep parents and students updated and informed about the situation. At the same time, it is important to take care of the students here with the help they may need, he says to VG.
Moved with all of the resources
The fire service was notified of the fire at 02.21.
– We moved out with what we had of resources from several stations, says duty officer Harald Kleppo at Sør-Øst 110-central to VG at 07.30.
He continues:
– It was overheated when we arrived at the place.
Kleppo does not want to say anything about the further course.
– We are still on site and doing post-extinguishing, he says.
Police station chief Aas tells VG that the house was not possible to save.
In a press release, he said that it is too early to say anything about the possible cause of the fire.
– Affects the entire community
The management and the crisis team in Drammen municipality have been notified and are in the process of implementing the necessary measures, police station chief Aas states.
Mayor Monica Myrvold Berg in Drammen municipality tells VG in the morning that the municipality will assist as far as possible.
– We assist where we can, also with crisis teams if necessary. But the situation is now handled by the police, while we are briefed along the way, she says.
She adds:
– Berger is a small community, where most people know each other. So this is a fire that is affecting the whole community to a very large extent. It is therefore important that you take care of each other in a difficult time, at the same time as the municipality’s services must be available to those who need it.
The mayor happened to be up after she struggled to sleep last night. Then she discovered several messages about the fire on her mobile phone. What the municipality can assist with is to take care of those involved with crisis teams, as well as practical tasks, she says.
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