BERLIN (AP) – Four people were seriously hurt in an overnight fire at a hospital in Berlin, including a patient who sustained life-threatening injuries, authorities said Monday. A man was arrested on suspicion of starting the blaze.
The fire on the third floor of the Klinikum am Urban in the German capital was extinguished early Monday morning, the fire service said. Three patients and a nurse were seriously injured, among them a patient who got stuck in an elevator and whose life was in danger after inhaling smoke.
Forty people were evacuated as smoke spread through the building.
Police said the blaze appears to have started when a 48-year-old man set fire to two hospital beds shortly after midnight. He also tried to set a garbage can alight in a foyer, but firefighters prevented him from doing so, they said in a statement. The suspect was arrested.