update
Two people died in a serious fire in a house in Profondsart, a sub-municipality of Wavre, on Saturday. Mayor Benoît Thoreau and the public prosecutor’s office of Walloon Brabant confirm this. One of them was the 16-year-old son of the owner of the property. Four other people were injured. Authorities fear that there may still be people in the building.
Journalist at HLN
Source: RTL Info, Belga, L’Avenir
The fire brigades of Braine-l’Alleud, Waver and Overijse were called to a fire in Demaretstraat in Limal on Saturday around 3:30 p.m. According to Mayor Thoreau, it is probably a student residence. “The victims are young people,” it said. The public prosecutor’s office is nuanced that information for the time being. “The investigation will have to show whether it is actually a student residence,” says prosecutor Marc Rézette.
One of the victims of the fire is the son of the owner. The public prosecutor of Walloon Brabant said this on Sunday morning. “The second person who died has not yet been formally identified,” the public prosecutor said. “They probably died from smoke poisoning,” said Rézette.
LOOK. “The two victims probably died due to the smoke development,” says Crown Prosecutor of Walloon Brabant Marc Rézette.
The fire brigade set up a security perimeter around the house and continued the search for possible other victims. “We don’t know how many people were inside at the time of the fire,” Mayor Thoreau said in ‘RTL Info’.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, in addition to the two fatalities, four people were also injured. This concerns the owner of the building, two people of whom it remains to be determined whether they were in the home or in the vicinity, and a neighbor who had inhaled smoke.
The fire was under control around 5:30 p.m., but emergency services remained on site hours later. “Many structures of the house are constructed of wood, which complicates the search.” The cause of the fire is under investigation. No foul play is currently suspected. “The fire is said to have started in the basement during the cutting open of a fuel oil tank,” the prosecutor said, subject to new elements in the investigation.