A man had to be rescued from a burning apartment in Grafarvogur at half past two last night, Rúv reports. According to the capital area fire department, the man was taken to a hospital but is in critical condition. Later that night, a family of five escaped on their own out of a burning building in Mosfellsbær.

Four firefighters entered the apartment in Grafarvogur where the fire started and rescued the man who was still inside. He was found quickly. The fire started on the fourth floor of a six-story building and some of the building‘s inhabitants were stuck in their apartments for a while. Six others were taken to the emergency ward with suspected smoke poisoning.

Twenty minutes after the call came from Grafarvogur, the fire department was notified of a fire in Mosfellsbær. When they arrived on the scene, the house was ablaze but the inhabitants, a family of five, had gotten out on their own. They were also sent to the emergency ward with suspected smoke poisoning as well as some cuts after exiting the building through a broken window.

Árni Árnason was one of the people stuck on the fifth floor of the Grafarvogur building for the better part of an hour, waiting to be brought down by the fire department. „ It‘s a terrible feeling, being stuck on the balcony, with the building burning underneath you and no way out,“ Árni told RÚV. „It felt like an eternity. With me was a young couple, my neighbours. The woman is pregnant and she was, of course, very nervous. We told the fire brigade we had a pregnant woman with us and they told us to stay where we were.“ Árni and the others were brought down unharmed.

According to Árni, the man in critical condition had tried to wake up his neigbours before he collapsed due to the smoke on the fourth floor.