Man feared dead after house fire in Hyllestad

A man is believed to have died in a house fire in Sørbøvåg, Hyllestad, on Saturday evening. The residence became engulfed in flames and spread to a nearby car.

Operational leader Knut Dahl-Michelsen stated on Sunday morning that the house was nearly fully engulfed by the time the first firefighting crews arrived. “They were unable to search the entire house before it became overtaken by flames,” he said. The man had alerted emergency services shortly before 9 p.m., but authorities were unable to reestablish contact with him afterward. Relatives have been notified.

The man, who lived alone in the house, was instructed to evacuate, but the phone call was cut off. Subsequent attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. When the first patrol arrived, efforts were made to locate him around the house, while new attempts were made to contact him by phone.

The fire developed rapidly. Hyllestad’s fire chief, Atle Tonning, was present during the firefighting efforts. He reported that the first responder encountered heavy smoke. “When the first firefighter arrived, there was no visible fire in the house, but it was so filled with smoke that entry was impossible,” Tonning said. Efforts were made to establish a water supply and deploy smoke divers as quickly as possible. However, it soon became clear that the fire had progressed to such an extent that a controlled burn was necessary.

By midnight, the firefighters had the blaze under control, but the house was considered a total loss. Throughout the night, crews conducted mop-up operations and were finished at the scene around 5 a.m. on Sunday. An investigation has been launched, but the exact timing of further examinations is not yet clear. The site remains warm.

“There is currently a guard on duty, and further searches will be conducted as soon as it is practically possible,” Dahl-Michelsen said. However, the exact timing and method of these searches have not yet been determined. The criminal investigation unit in the Vest police district informed NRK on Sunday afternoon that further investigations at the site are unlikely to occur before Monday. The cause of the fire is unknown.

Source: NRK Vestland