Seven young teenagers seriously injured in garage fire outside Borås

Seven young teenagers were seriously injured in a garage fire outside Borås, and all seven are receiving intensive care. The fullest public account of what happened comes from the commander of the emergency response.

Viktor Fritzson, duty commander and rescue leader at the scene, told the local newspaper Borås Tidning that a group of youths had been working in the garage when a small amount of petrol leaked out and ignited. His account covers the leak and the ignition. It does not cover what the youths were working on, how seven of them came to be in the same garage at the same time, or what was stored around them when the petrol caught.

Dagens Nyheter counts seven children seriously injured. TT's dispatch, relaying Borås Tidning's reporting, is more precise about the injured: they are young teenagers, and all are in intensive care. On the essentials — a garage, a group of youths, petrol, seven casualties — the reports agree.

Petrol is a commonplace thing to find in a garage; it fuels lawnmowers, mopeds and outboard engines. Seven intensive-care patients from a small leak is not commonplace, and nothing in the public record yet explains the distance between the two.

The rescue leader's account ends where the injuries begin: with a small amount of petrol that leaked out and ignited.

All seven remain in intensive care.