The inhabitants were able to get themselves to safety, says spokesperson Leon Eummelen for the Safety Region Zuid-Limburg. One student was helped down using a ladder.
The student building is managed by a letting agent that operates in several Dutch cities. Right next to it is a Guesthouse apartment complex where exchange students from Maastricht University are housed. It was one of these tenants said Maurice Evers, head of Maastricht Housing, who first noticed the fire next door – he smelled something burning – so he phoned the fire brigade. The circumstances are unknown, the fire brigade and police stated. As far as Evers knows, the fire was caused by an air conditioning unit that had apparently caught fire.
On Sunday evening after the fire was under control, all the student rooms in the complex, as well as the adjoining buildings, were checked as a precautionary measure. The inhabitants have by now returned home.