Major Fire Damages Zagreb Skyscraper, No Collapse Risk.

2 hours ago7 min read

Flames erupted with a terrifying suddenness, clawing their way up the facade of the Vjesnik skyscraper in the heart of Zagreb, transforming a piece of the city's skyline into a towering inferno that cast an ominous, flickering glow across the capital. Emergency services scrambled into a frenetic, all-hands response, with fire crews from multiple stations battling the blaze through the night, their ladders and hoses seeming almost fragile against the sheer scale of the conflagration that consumed multiple upper floors, sending plumes of thick, acrid smoke billowing into the sky that could be seen for miles.Eyewitness accounts described a scene of controlled chaos, with the streets below cordoned off as debris and shattered glass rained down, while the relentless roar of the fire and the urgent sirens created a soundscape of urban emergency. Despite the visual devastation, which left the building's exterior scarred and its interior gutted, a crucial, steadying message was issued by civil protection authorities: preliminary structural assessments indicated no immediate risk of a catastrophic collapse, a testament to the building's original reinforced concrete skeleton holding firm against the onslaught.The Vjesnik building, a prominent landmark that has housed the offices of a major newspaper and stands as a relic of post-war Yugoslav architecture, now faces an uncertain future, its fate hinging on detailed engineering inspections that will determine if it can be salvaged or must be consigned to history. This incident immediately draws parallels to other high-profile urban fires across Europe, raising urgent questions about fire safety protocols in aging high-rises, the adequacy of regulatory inspections, and the immense logistical challenge of fighting fires at such extreme heights, a problem that city planners from London to Berlin are increasingly forced to confront. The economic and social ripple effects are already being calculated, from the displacement of businesses and the loss of a historic press institution's home to the profound psychological impact on Zagreb's citizens, who have watched a familiar part of their cityscape be violently altered in a matter of hours, a stark reminder of urban vulnerability.

#featured

#Zagreb

#Vjesnik skyscraper

#major fire

#building damage

#emergency response

#Croatia

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