Two people were killed in a Jerusalem apartment building Monday morning, after a fire erupted in the building. Two others were injured from the flames.
An initial investigation revealed that the tenant from the ground floor, who was killed in the fire, may have set fire to the building in an attempt to commit suicide.
The smoke spread across the building, causing the death of another woman. Her husband was severely injured and another person was lightly hurt.
A call to Magen David Adom came at around 4:30 am, and a number of MDA crews and fire trucks were immediately dispatched to the Arnona neighborhood. The crews quickly calmed the flames and rescued several people from a burning apartment on the first floor of the building.
Only later did the firefighters realize that two people had been killed. One man was killed immediately as a result of the explosion which occurred in his apartment. A 50-year-old woman was critically wounded and evacuated to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The woman's husband was severely wounded and taken to hospital.
"The evacuation to hospitals was very quick. Within five minutes from the moment the injured were brought out to us we had already begun driving," said Eyal Zahavi, the first paramedic to arrive at the scene.
"The explosion was very powerful, so powerful that it woke up most of the neighbors living in the area. The building's door was blown some 200 meters into the street (650 feet) and shrapnel was blown into the street as well. I haven't seen an explosion this size in a long time," Zahavi said.
Efrat Weiss contributed to this report
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