A fire broke out at the Tokyo Star hotel in Odessa overnight, killing eight people. Ukrainian authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether fire safety requirements were breached.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/O. Gimanov
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A fire in a hotel in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa has killed eight people and left 10 people hospitalized, city police said on Saturday.
The fire broke out at 1:34 a.m. local time (2234 UTC) spread about 1,000 square meters (10,000 square feet) of the Tokyo Star hotel near Odessa's main train station, according to a police statement. Some 65 firefighters and 13 emergency vehicles put out the blaze three hours later.
Odessa authorities said that around 150 people were evacuated from the hotel. They did not say the state of the 10 people who were hospitalized, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on his Facebook page that four were in critical condition.
The causes of the fire are still being established. Police have opened a criminal investigation into possible breaches to fire safety regulations.
"We lost eight lives overnight," Zelenskiy said on Facebook. "And this is not due to war and shelling. It is because of criminal negligence, neglect of elementary standards and neglect towards human life."
Zelenskiy also said he would "personally make sure" that those responsible are punished "in accordance with the norms of the law."
Wildfires in Europe: Dry summer turns deadly and destructive
Hundreds of firefighters are battling monster blazes in Greece and France. Extreme heat and drought conditions brought on by climate change are leaving much of Europe vulnerable to wildfires.
Image: REUTERS
Help from above
EU air support is backing up Greek firefighters on the ground as the massive blaze on the island of Evia enters its third day.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Tzortinis
A forest burns
Hundreds of people were evacuated from villages on the Greek island of Evia when the fire began on Tuesday.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Tzortinis
A smoke-choked capital
Just hours after the fire broke out on Tuesday, smoke was already traveling west, shrouding the Akropolis in Greece's capital, Athens, over 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.
Image: Reuters/C. Baltas
More woes for Athens
The suburbs of Athens were hit earlier in the week by a wildfire, with authorities ordering evacuations as homes burned.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/T. Stavrakis
A week in flames
Over the weekend, the island Elafonisos, just south of the Peloponnese peninsula, was also on fire, forcing the evacuation of vacationers.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/N. Apostolou
Islands ablaze
Earlier in the week, a fire raged on Gran Canaria, burning up over 1,500 hectares and sending hundreds of people fleeing.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Guardia Civil
A fire the size of Belgium in Russia
Fires in eastern Russia burned up over 1 million acres of woodland earlier in August. Though forest fires are common in Siberia, there is no precedent for the scale of this summer's.
Image: Imago Images/ITAR-TASS/D. Sorokin
Germans hit hard
Not even Germany was spared from this summer's wildfires. A former military training grounds caught ablaze in July, requiring the labor of scores of firefighters.
