Berlin sauna where three men died may not reopen
The Berlin sauna where three men died in a fire may not reopen, it has emerged.
Firefighters were called to Steam Works late on Sunday evening to find around 25 people on the street.
Some of the men were dressed only in towels and robes.
Nearly all were treated at the scene, though one had to be taken to hospital. He is believed to be in a stable condition.
German tabloid, Bild, is claiming the owners of the club are in debt and have already been served with a notice of eviction.
It claims the sauna owes around €12,000 in an unpaid water bill and rent.
It is still unclear at this time how the fire started, but police have said they have no reason to believe it was a deliberate act.
The owners of the site have declined to comment on the matter.
Taking up both the basement and ground floor of a seven-storey building, fire crews described the operation as “immensely difficult”, due to the maze of small spaces in the club.
It was inside the sauna’s individual cubicles that the three men were found.
Although post mortems are still to be carried out, it’s believed the men who were French, Spanish and of yet an undisclosed nationality, all died from smoke asphyxiation.
Fire investigators are expected to begin work on finding a cause for the blaze.
The building above the site was undamaged.
In 2015, a man was found dead in a sauna in London.
At the time the death was not treated as suspicious.
Berlin is famed for its tolerance of the LGBT community.
In February last year, the city opened a shelter for LGBT Syrian refugees.
