Two people died and 13 others were affected by smoke after a fire broke out in a residential building in Lucca, Italy, according to local reporting from the scene. Four children, including an infant, were among those caught up in the emergency.
The fire occurred in a three-storey public-housing building on Via Bertini in the San Vito area. Flames were reported to have started in a ground-floor apartment occupied by 65-year-old Gianluca Del Papa and 73-year-old Maria Grazia Giorgetti. Both were found dead after firefighters brought the blaze under control.
Smoke moved through the rest of the building and prevented some residents from using the stairs. A number of people went onto balconies while waiting for rescuers. Firefighters arrived at about 11:30 p.m., evacuated the property and brought roughly a dozen residents to safety, including the infant.
Emergency services treated people for smoke exposure at different levels of severity. One woman in her sixties was transferred to Pisa under a red-code classification. Eight people — five adults and three children — were taken to hospital under yellow-code classifications, while two adults and one child were assigned green codes. The account described 13 people as affected in addition to the two fatalities.
The cause had not been established. An early hypothesis reported locally was that the fire began accidentally near a sofa in the couple's apartment, but investigators had not confirmed a specific ignition source. Any suggestion about how it started therefore remained preliminary.
The response involved nine emergency vehicles and teams from the fire service, regional medical coordination, ambulance organizations and law enforcement. The building was subsequently declared unfit for occupancy. Sixteen people from five households, including children, were displaced.
Lucca's municipal services activated support for residents who could not return home. A reception site at Villa Pardini in the Sant'Anna area was to be made available for households requesting accommodation, with capacity broadly matching the number displaced.
Mayor Mario Pardini visited the scene and said city social services were assisting affected families. He also expressed condolences to the relatives of those killed and thanked emergency personnel for handling a complex rescue.
The immediate priorities after the fire were care for those exposed to smoke, temporary housing for the displaced residents and an investigation into the origin of the blaze. With the entire building inaccessible, residents faced disruption extending beyond the overnight emergency even as the most seriously affected survivor received hospital treatment in Pisa.
