A family of four was missing and feared dead Monday after fire swept through their wooden home at Berger in Svelvik, south of Drammen. The fire that broke out in the middle of the night left the home in the small coastal community completely destroyed.
The grim task of sifting through the debris was underway Monday morning. Local officials said relatives of the family had been contacted, while the local fire department itself, where one of the family members worked as a constable, was setting up a crisis team.
“We’ll be gathering at the fire station in Drammen, we need to be together right now,” Fire Chief Torgeir Andersen told reporters Monday morning.
The first alarms were sounded at 2:27am but flames were shooting out of the home’s upstairs windows by the time emergency crews arrived at the scene. The family consisted of two adults and two children, and the local community was in shock, according to local paster Audhild Kaastad in Svelvik, a bit farther up the coast.
“This is a terrible event, the entire community is in shock right before Christmas,” she told state broadaster NRK. “The most important thing right now is to stand together and help one another.”
newsinenglish.no staff
