A man in his twenties succumbed to a house fire in central Reykjavik last night, despite a daring rescue effort by police officers before fire fighters arrived on the scene.

A security guard noticed smoke coming from the house on Hverfisgata and called emergency services and the police arrived on the scene first due to the close proximity of the central police station.

Residents of the house did not wake up when police officers banged the door, so they broke the door down and woke everybody on the first two floors. Despite thick smoke, they continued up to the loft, where they found one man whom it was impossible to wake.

At the same time, the fire brigade arrived and went straight up to the attic and evacuated the man to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The other four residents escaped without serious injury. The timber house is severely damaged, if not beyond repair. The cause of the fire is unknown but is thought to have started in the loft. Flames were visible on the outside of the roof by the time the fire brigade arrived, Visir.is reports.

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