9News, Australia
written by AP staff
Monday August 30, 2021
Italian firefighters have battled a high-rise blaze in Milan that spread rapidly through a 20-story residential building and poured black smoke into the air.
Residents were hurriedly evacuated.
Mayor Giuseppe Sala said there were no reports of injuries or deaths, but that firefighters were kicking down doors, apartment by apartment, to make sure there were no victims.
"We are sure that there was time to get out, but until the controls are finished, we cannot be entirely sure," Mr Sala told reporters at the scene.
He said about 20 people were evacuated without incident.
The 60-metre tall building, part of a recent development project, was designed to look like the keel of a ship and included an aluminium sail on its roof, which burned and fell to the street in pieces.
A huge plume of black smoke rose from the reinforced concrete building named the Torre dei Moro and was visible for kilometres.
Flames continued to burn inside nearly three hours after a dozen fire trucks and ambulances responded to the alarm.
One firefighter told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that the blaze was still limited when they arrived and firefighters were able to get residents out.
Within an hour, the flames had spread from the 15th floor, where the fire appears to have started, quickly devouring the entire facade of the building.
Unidentified residents told Corriere that the panels on the facade were supposed to have been fire-resistant.
Firefighters say the fire involved a 20-story building.
Plans for the project say it has 16 residential floors plus two underground.
The Telegraph, UK
written by Nick Squires
Sunday August 29, 2021
Italian firefighters battled flames that engulfed a high-rise residential tower in Milan on Sunday night.
Clouds of black smoke rose into the air as the 15-storey building on the outskirts of Italy’s financial centre burned intensely.
Firefighters went door to door, kicking down doors and making sure all the occupants of the block had managed to escape.
“They told us that the panels that covered the tower were fire-resistant, but they burned fast, like butter,” one resident told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
The fire began at around 6pm local time. Around 70 families lived in the apartment block.
Early reports suggested that unlike London's Grenfell Tower disaster, which killed 71 people, no one was killed or injured in the Milan inferno.
"We’re confident that there was time to get out, but until the checks are finished, we cannot be entirely sure," Giuseppe Sala, the mayor of Milan, told reporters at the scene.
“For now we have no reports of victims or injuries. But firefighters are going from apartment to apartment, breaking down the doors to see if anyone has remained inside.”
The 200ft tall building was designed to look like the keel of a ship and included an aluminum sail on its roof, which burned and fell to the street in pieces.
A huge plume of black smoke rose from the reinforced concrete building, named the Torre dei Moro, and was visible for miles.
One firefighter said the blaze was still limited when they arrived and firefighters were able to get residents out.
The Grenfell Tower fire broke out in the kitchen of a fourth floor flat in June 2017.
Within minutes, flames had spread up the exterior of the building and by the early hours, most of the upper floors were burning.
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