Berlin [Germany], March 13: A fire at a large refugee accommodation centre in Berlin on Tuesday destroyed a temporary lodging but did not cause any injuries, according to the fire brigade.
The fire destroyed a roughly 1,000-square-metre tent at the refugee centre, located on the grounds of the former Tegel airport in the German capital.
The cause of the fire was initially unclear.
A fire brigade spokesman said that the large tent structure has room for 380 people but that all residents were able to evacuate in time.
A spokesman for the local refugee agency said that 301 people from Ukraine were living in the tent that burned down. A further four temporary halls near the fire were evacuated as a precaution, according to officials.
The fire did not spread to other tents at the refugee centre, he said, and the situation was "manageable." A thick cloud of smoke could be seen over the former airport site as dozens of Berlin firefighters battled the blaze.
The facility was built to house up to 7,000 people and is currently home to about 4,500 refugees, according to a Berlin State Office for Refugee Affairs (LAF) spokesman. The arrival centre for migrants is among the largest in Germany.
It was originally built exclusively to welcome people fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine but has since been used to house other arriving refugees and asylum-seekers as well.
The facility is only supposed to temporarily house people who have newly arrived in Germany, although some people end up stuck in the temporary living quarters for months.
Source: Qatar Tribune
