Five dead, one missing as fire traps workers in Brussels renovation tower

A fire broke out Tuesday morning in the Oxy tower, a building under renovation in central Brussels, resulting in at least five deaths and one person missing. The fire started on the second floor and spread through the elevator shaft, trapping several people inside.
According to Valentina Marocchi, the labor prosecutor in Brussels, five bodies were found in one of the elevators. "In elevator number 1 of the Oxy tower in Brussels, we found five bodies, probably six," she said. The search for the missing person continues, with authorities believing they might be in a second elevator that firefighters have not yet accessed.
The fire was initially contained, but flames spread through the elevator shaft, causing a second fire that was later brought under control. Two people with burns were taken to the Military Hospital in Neder-over-Heembeek, and a firefighter suffering from heatstroke was treated at the scene.
The Oxy tower, located near the Place de Brouckere, is undergoing renovation to include apartments, restaurants, a four-star hotel, and a rooftop bar. Over 200 workers were in the building at the time of the fire and were evacuated to a nearby administrative center where the Red Cross provided psychological support.
Brecht Speybrouck, a spokesman for the Brussels Labor Prosecutor's Office, told local media that the cause of the fire is still under investigation. "We had small access to one of the two elevator cabinets and there we had a view that there are some corpses of two or three people who died," he said.
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