Zurich Switzerland – Elderly Orthodox Couple Dies In Zurich Blaze

Zurich Switzerland – A fire that broke out late last night in Zurich took the lives of an elderly Jewish couple as the attic apartment they were living in was completely destroyed by flames.

The Zurich fire department is still investigating the cause of the blaze, which took the lives of a 91 year old man and his 74 year old wife and Israeli news site B’Chadrei Chareidim is reporting (http://bit.ly/13HImV3) the family name to be Reb Yosef Oelbaum.

“It is too early to know what happened,” Brigitte Botte, a media spokesperson for the Zurich Police told VIN News. “There were very big damages, possibly amounting to several hundred thousand Swiss francs and it will take some time to determine the cause of the fire.”

The fire department was called to the site, located on Richard Strasse in the Enge section of Zurich, at approximately midnight and according to Swiss news site Tages Anzeiger, the attic was already completely engulfed by flames. A 60 year old nurse that lived with the couple managed to escape the attic but was taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. A son of the Oelbaums, who lived on the lower floors of the house, escaped the blaze unharmed.

“It took half an hour to get the fire under control, but several hours to extinguish the flames completely,” said Botte who said that the attic is completely ruined and there is water damage to the third floor. “It is unknown at this time if the building is still inhabitable.”