Berlin Firefighters Battle 18-Hour Blaze in Steglitz Apartment Building

Firefighters in Berlin spent nearly 18 hours battling a fire that tore through the roof of a residential building in the Steglitz district, leaving the structure uninhabitable, the Berlin fire department said Tuesday.

The blaze broke out in a building on Filandstraße, with the alarm raised at 5:46 p.m. Monday. Crews did not declare the fire under control until 11:31 a.m. Tuesday, making it one of the longest firefighting operations in the city this year.

The fire consumed roughly 300 square meters of roof structure. At its peak, about 180 emergency personnel were deployed, with some crews working through the entire night without a break.

A spokesperson for the Berlin fire department said the operation was complicated by the design of the roof. "Fire suppression was made difficult by the complex roof situation," the spokesperson said Tuesday afternoon.

Three turntable ladders were positioned at the scene, and firefighters worked simultaneously to attack the flames from inside the building, according to the spokesperson. But the heavy, dense roofing material of the older structure slowed the effort considerably.

"The fire was able to escape outward, but the water could not properly get in," the spokesperson said, describing the central challenge crews faced throughout the night.

No one was injured directly by the fire, officials said. One person was taken to a hospital during the operation, though the fire department said that was due to an unrelated illness rather than injuries sustained in the blaze.

Because of the scale of the firefighting effort, crews installed water barriers inside the building. The spokesperson said the measure was necessary given how much water had to be used to fight the flames.

The building, a three-story structure, has been declared uninhabitable for the time being. Fire officials indicated the property is unlikely to be saved, though a final assessment of the damage had not been completed as of Tuesday.

Authorities have not yet released information on the cause of the fire. Residents displaced by the blaze and its aftermath were not immediately detailed by officials, and further updates on the building's status and any investigation into the origin of the fire are expected in the coming days.