Residents were forced to flee a blaze that erupted in a 21-story building in Berlin's Friedrichshain neighborhood on Friday morning. The fire broke out around 6:30 a.m. local time, according to German news outlet dga.
Footage of the incident captured the moment a woman escaped the fire onto a narrow window ledge approximately 35 meters above the ground as flames engulfed the high-rise. Her legs dangled as she perched near an aggressive fire raging from a flat window. The clip shows the woman attempting to climb down to a firefighter on a ladder basket positioned two floors below. However, she was unable to reach the rescuer as her feet slid on the building's exterior.
As the fire intensified and smoke increased, the woman was left with no other option but to leap from the building. She was safely caught by the firefighter.
At least five people were injured in the incident, which is understood to have started in a flat on the eleventh floor and spread to the floor above. The fire was brought under control in under three hours.
This incident follows a similar event in March where hundreds of people were forced to flee a nightclub in Germany after a fire ripped through and destroyed the building. The blaze at the K Club in Kehl, located near the French border, began around 3:45 a.m. local time and spread across the entire building, according to police. Approximately 750 people were in the club at the time, and all escaped safely, though three were treated for shock. The damage was so extensive that most of the building had to be torn down.
Kehl's mayor, Wolfram Britz, expressed relief that no one was seriously injured and thanked the nightclub owner for ensuring an orderly evacuation. Firefighters worked into Sunday afternoon to extinguish remnants of the blaze. An investigation into the cause of the nightclub fire was opened, but it was not immediately clear.