The BBC is now reporting: "One person was rescued from a burning tower block and a number of residents were led to safety after a fire broke out at high-rise flats outside Belfast."
A fire hit a tower block in Dunmurry in Northern Ireland. The Fire Service, Ambulance Service, and police all attended the scene.
So far, the fire at Coolmoyne House tower block on Seymour Hill has been brought under control. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said four people have been taken from their flats and placed inside ambulances for a check-up and possible treatment.
Another man was rescued from the fire as well as a number of others who were decisively brought to safety by responding officers.
Authorities first received a call at 5:32 pm about a report of an ongoing fire. A total of eleven fire appliances quickly responded to the scene.
Upon their arrival, the Fire and Rescue Service were faced with a well-developed fire on the ninth floor of a block of flats.
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service gives credit to the prompt response of their firefighters for quickly putting the fire under control. The fire was extinguished at 6:10 p.m.
A witness also shared that hundreds of residents were indeed evacuated to the street. The local community hall managed by Seymour Hill and Conway Community Residents Association opened their doors to residents escaping the fire.
Another resident named Julie Ann Jackson told the local media that the fire broke out in the flat of a man in his 50s. She shared that apparently, the man lived alone, yet managed to alert other people in the building about the fire.
The fear of the residents became extra heightened due to the public trauma brought by what happened to Grenfell fire which claimed the lives of so many residents.
Fire crews remain at the scene of the incident. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The Fire and Rescue Service, however, has cleared the place and said there’s no further risk to the public.
One of the angles being looked at is that the fire may be linked to a toaster.
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