People severely injured in fires over New Year’s weekend - including in Basel
Several people were injured in fires across Switzerland over the New Year’s weekend, some of them seriously. Eight people, including six children, suffered serious injuries in a large fire in Geneva on Sunday afternoon.
About one hundred people had to be temporarily evacuated from an apartment building in the Jonction Quarter of Geneva, with dozens of inhabitants rescued by ladders. A total of 30 people were injured. Eleven people were taken to a hospital, including eight brought in by the emergency services. Many people were suffering from smoke inhalation.
Severe fire
The smoke and the flames were visible on the façade of the apartment building. The affected apartment was completely destroyed by the flames and the walls nearly collapsed. Engineers investigated the structural safety of the building and the other apartments.
Most of the building’s inhabitants were able to return to their apartments by the evening. The others were put up in a civil protection facility. A large-scale presence of emergency services was responsible for extinguishing the fire and for the rescue operation.
The fire fighters of Geneva were called into action once again on New Year's Eve after another fire broke out in an apartment building in the Servette Quarter. One person was severely injured and five others suffered the effects of smoke inhallation. All 30 inhabitants of the building had to be rescued.
A spokesperson of the cantonal police of Geneva confirmed the details, which were reported on the online portals “20 minutes” and “Tribune de Genève”. The cause of the fires remains unclear.
Fire in refugee home
Over the same weekend, a fire also broke out in an apartment block on Wiesenstrasse in Basel.
The fire broke out in a ground level apartment shortly before 2am on Monday morning, with local residents raising the alarm.
Two women were injured and had to be taken to a hospital by the emergency services. The person who rents out the apartment suffered burns and smoke poisoning. A neighbour was suspected to have suffered from smoke gas poisoning in the fire.
The apartment buiding had to be temporarily evacuated. The fire was quickly extinguished, the public prosecution of the canton of Basel-Stadt said.
Elsewhere in Switzerland, two women had to be taken to hospital for possible smoke poisoning after a fire broke out at a home in St Gallen on Saturday night. The damages amount to the sum of about 100,000 Swiss francs according to estimates by the police. The cause of this fire is also still unknown.
A house for asylum seekers in Hergiswil near Willisau (LU) was also damaged in a fire on New Year's Eve. The seven asylum seekers living in the house were uninjured. At first it was not clear whether they were at home at the time the fire broke out. The cause of the fire is unknown.
Finally, a local resident was injured in a fire at a wooden cabin in Romanshorn on Sunday. He was treated in hospital for smoke gas poisoning. According to the police, the fire fighters were able to avoid the flames spreading to other buildings.
Roger Federer is back for good
Roger Federer returned to the tennis tour with regained strength and renewed success. The 35-year-old Baselländer emerges victorious in his comeback at the Hopman Cup in Perth against the British player Daniel Evans in straight sets with 6:3, 6:4.
Federer gave the kind of performance for the 13,600 spectators at the Perth Arenia as if he had never been away. The 17-time Grand Slam champion, who was greeted by fans with a standing ovation, was brim-full of energy against the TPA number 66. Federer started brilliantly with an ace and a successful volley, and continued to unleash his full strike potential for the rest of the game. The final result was 24 wins for Federer.
His forehand worked successfully again, and Federer was also convincing at the net. The Baselland player had trouble with his return, particularly when playing backhand. However, there is a lot of improvement potential when he plays against Alexander Zerev and Richard Gasquet in the coming matches this week.
After a 61-minute game, Federer stated that he could not be happier to put on his tennis shoes, step out on the Centre Court, and to be greeted warmly by the crowd. “The pain of the past months was worth it,” he said. Due to his injury, he had spent a lot of time with his family, his friends, and his parents. “But I began to miss tennis as time went by,” he said.
Basel City Gardeners produce in “bio-certified” manner now
On its path to a more sustainable plant production and caretaking of green areas, the Basel City Gardeners have reached another milestone. The internal gardening in Brüglingen, where plants are produced for sale, a bio-conversion facility has been running successfully for two years and has been given bio-certification.
Sustainable production and caretaking of the city’s green areas are a central matter for Basel’s City Gardeners. For years, they have been focussing to switching to “bio” wherever possible. Now, the gardeners of Brüglingen have been certified the “Bio-Knospe” (bio buds).
They follow the Wiedenhof tree nursery and compost facility in Arlesheim, which has been bio-certified for two years and can put the “Bio-Knospe” label on its trees, compost, and plant substrates from its own production.