3 people hospitalized after cabin fire in Christiansand

The Christian Spirit: – There were five people in the cabin. They woke up because it was on fire, Kamila Novick, incident head of the Akter police district, tells Federlandsvenen's reporter at the scene.

At 03.11 on Tuesday, Akter Police District received a report of a fire in a cabin in Sumatraveyan in Vågsbygd, Kristiansand.

There is only a pile of ashes in the cabin.
Photo: Tarmot Flem Veg

A cabin on land across the strait from Sumatra was engulfed in flames when emergency services arrived.

The occupants left on their own.

– Three with burns

Here on a Tuesday night the cabin is fully lit.
**Photo:** Reader image

So there were a total of five people in the cabin, plus two who slept in the nearby sea shed.

– Three people suffered burns, says Øyvind Hægeland, operations manager of Aktor police district.

All three have been admitted to hospital for treatment.

– Those involved are deeply affected by the incident, says Hegland.

Firefighters spent Tuesday night and morning working to extinguish the dam.
**Photo:** Tarmot Flem Veg

All are natives of Rogaland, he says.

Before 05:00, the police said that the cabin was completely damaged and destroyed by fire, and the fire brigade who arrived at the scene continued to put out the fire.

Kamila Novick, Incident Commander at Actor Police District, Cabin.
**Photo:** Tarmot Flem Veg

– The cabin burned to the ground. There's only the tube, Camilla Novick points out.

The dog woke up

Emergency services Tuesday night a short distance from the cabin.
**Photo:** Tarmot Flem Veg

A dog woke up an elderly couple in a neighboring cottage on Tuesday night.

The dog found it on fire.

– The dog is pregnant. It won't stop, says the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous.

– When I looked out, the property next door was full of flames, she explains.

– What did you do then?

The cabin was completely gutted.
**Photo:** Tarmot Flem Veg

– We got up and ran to the burning room to see if people came out.

The man said he called neighbors in the area to report the fire.

They left with the fire boat

The burnt cabin is located in Sumatra, near Møvik.
**Photo:** Tarmot Flem Veg

There are no other buildings in the vicinity, but there is no road to the room, making extinguishing difficult.

The fire brigade used a boat.

Kristiansand Regional Fire and Rescue (KBR) emergency manager Arnstein Syvartsen said a crew of six went to the cabin in a fire boat.

Arnstein Syvartsen, Emergency Manager at KBR.
**Photo:** Tarmot Flem Veg

– The cabin was more or less on fire when we arrived. “When we went around Oteroya we saw the halo and the smoke mushroom,” he says.

At one point there was talk of the fire service handling the transport of the injured, but the police and ambulance staff took care of that.

– We focused on extinguishing the fire and preventing it from spreading further, says Sivertson.

– How did the extinguishment work?

– So far so good. There was a bit of a spread over the terrain, but we quickly got it under control. It's an old cabin. The fire spread rapidly. We don't have much to spare, says the emergency manager, who encourages cabin owners to check that the fire alarms in their cabins are in working order.

The dog is missing

Emergency services in the rest of the cabin.
**Photo:** Tarmot Flem Veg

There is good spacing between rooms in this area.

– There is a good distance between cabins of close to 50 meters so there is no risk of spread to other nearby cabins, the fire department said. The going is difficult, and a fire boat has been dispatched. They are now deploying hoses and focusing on extinguishing the fire on land, Øyvind Hægeland told NTB shortly before 04:00.

The cause of the fire is currently unknown.

– The area is cordoned off pending forensic investigations, says Kamila Novick.

The family's dog in the cabin was unaccounted for, police said.