Brussels Fire Reveals Charred Bodies in Lift as 6 Remain Missing

Q: After a fire in April, why were workers trapped in a plummeting elevator during this week's deadly blaze at the same site?

Workers appear to have been trapped because the fire spread rapidly from the second floor into the building’s lift shafts, turning them into vertical channels for heat, smoke and flames and likely damaging the elevators themselves. Local reports said two lifts plunged, and rescuers later found bodies in one elevator. The key factor is the shaft itself. Fire experts say lift shafts in buildings under renovation can act like chimneys through the “stack effect,” pulling hot gases upward and accelerating the spread of smoke and extreme heat. In a retrofit, that risk can be worse because fire compartmentation may be disrupted, combustible materials may be exposed, and some protection systems can be incomplete or temporarily out of service. That helps explain why workers could become trapped even after an earlier, smaller roof fire in April that caused no injuries. The April incident does not, on the available facts, explain this week’s deaths by itself. What changed this time was that the blaze reached the lift shafts, where conditions can deteriorate very quickly and where structural or mechanical damage can cause elevators to fail. Investigators have not yet established the precise trigger. But the working explanation is that a renovation-site fire spread into the shafts, the shafts intensified the blaze, and the elevators were either caught in or disabled by that fire, leaving workers trapped as at least one lift fell.

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Jul 14

Charred bodies were found in an elevator after a fire tore through a building under renovation in central Brussels, where rescuers were still searching for six missing workers.
The blaze started on the second floor and spread into the lift shaft, while first responders struggled to reach the area where the bodies were discovered.
About 250 workers were evacuated from the site, and two people were hospitalized with severe burns.
Thermal cameras and sniffer dogs were deployed in the search, as Mayor Philippe Close said the rapid emergency response helped avert a greater tragedy.
Belgium's King Philippe later visited the site, and Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said the country was still facing uncertainty over the victims.