The emergency services came out on Wednesday morning after news of a fire at an asylum reception center in Storslett, in the municipality of Nordreisa in Troms.
The building previously functioned as a hotel.
– We don’t know the exact number of residents and how many have yet to be evacuated, Troms Police District Operations Manager Per Arve Aas told NRK.
Aas updated at 08:50 that all 62 residents had been evacuated and reported.
Residents are evacuated to the Storslett community center.
It is not yet known what caused the fire to break out.
– We have our hands full, says Ole Valen, who is the regional manager of Hero Norway. They are the owners of the building.
Today he would have accepted more refugees
Valen says Storslett’s reception should have actually received more residents today from another asylum reception in Honningsvåg in Finnmark.
The reception is due to close tomorrow.
Ole Valen, Hero Norway’s regional manager.
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This is Valen and the company talking to UDI on how to solve it. Valen demanded that the refugees who were to come be detained.
He is glad that no one was hurt.
– A building is a building, but people are people.
At 09.34 the police can say that the fire has been extinguished.
– I contacted the crisis team
Mayor Hilde Nyvoll (AP) says residents at the reception will eventually be moved from the community center to another location. The reception has been welcoming Ukrainian refugees since spring.
Council appointed staff in connection with the incident and contacted the crisis team.
– Many wear nightwear and have had an abrupt start to the morning, Nyvoll tells NRK.
He says that after the firefighting work there is water damage in many reception rooms. The building is also characterized by the smoke that formed in connection with the fire.
– Now we need to have an overview of how many rooms are habitable and how many people need a bed for the night. Then we need to check what’s available in terms of capacity, the mayor says.
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