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Five teen girls celebrating friend's birthday die in Poland 'escape room' fire

Posted at 9:10 AM, Jan 05, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-05 09:10:09-05

Five teenage girls celebrating their friend's birthday Friday afternoon at an escape room in Poland died in a fire, officials said.

Police and fire officials are still trying to figure out how the room caught fire, killing the 15-year-old girls and causing one other person to be hospitalized with severe burns, according to CNN Polish affiliate TVN24 .

"We join the families of the victims in their grief. The fire broke out at 5 in the afternoon in one of the escape rooms in Koszalin. There have been five victims, five young victims. We have provided psychological, psychiatric care to the families," Koszalin Mayor Piotr Jedlinksi told TVN.

An escape room is where a group of people are locked inside and try to find a way out by searching for clues as part of a game.

"General Leszek Suski (Polish fire brigades chief commander) has issued a decision that from tomorrow all escape rooms, game centers and clubs will undergo fire safety inspections with special attention paid to evacuation plans, escape routes in these type of locations," Tomasz Kubiak, a Koszalin fire brigade officer, told TVN. "There should be a moderator in each location able to unlock the rooms and let people out. We will check this and it will be strictly controlled."

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Twitter lamented a "devastating tragedy in Koszalin. Five joyous, growing up girls have been torn out of their lives. God bless their their parents and relatives. RIP."

Jedlinksi called for a day of mourning Sunday.