At least 11 people were killed and 10 injured in an apartment building fire in the northeastern Czech Republic, officials said on Saturday, with some suggesting that the fire could be arson.
Police said the fire hit the 11th floor of the 13-story building in the afternoon in the town of Bohumin, near the Czech-Polish border.
Firefighters spokesman Lukas Popp told local media that six people, three adults and three children, were killed in an 11th-floor apartment, along with a dog.
Photo: AFP
“Our firefighters were on the site really fast but during the action, five people jumped out of the 12th-story window and died,” Popp said.
The others died after trying to escape from the building “in a panic,” Czech Minister of the Interior Jan Hamacek told public radio.
He described the fire as “a huge tragedy” in a tweet.
“My deepest condolences to the bereaved,” he said.
Hamacek and Regional Governor Ivo Vondrak suggested the fire was likely intentionally set.
Regional firefighter chief Vladimir Vlcek said it was unusual how quickly the fire spread through the entire apartment building, but said authorities were still investigating the cause of the fire.
“But the fire was very quick to develop, which is not normal. A fire like that typically affects one room, but this one hit the entire apartment, all the rooms are burned down,” he said.
Vlcek added it was not clear why the five people had jumped out of the window when their apartment was not yet hit by the blaze.
“All we would have needed was dozens of seconds to inflate the jumping cushion and the impact would not have been so tragic,” he said.
Regional chief police officer Tomas Kuzel said police have detained one person in connection with the fire.
“I think we are good when it comes to the culprit,” Kuzel said without specifying whether the detained person would be charged with arson.
He likened the fire to a case in 2013 when a man caused a gas explosion and fire that killed three children and two other people as well as himself. He reportedly hated his fellow tenants.
“It’s similar,” Kuzel said of the conflagration seven years ago in the eastern town of Frenstat. “The culprit there also basically liquidated a block of apartments and left many people dead.”
Vondrak said that besides the victims, 13 people were injured in the fire, including two firefighters and one police officer.
“The fire alarm was declared at 17:49 and the firefighters were on the site at 17:54,” Vondrak added.
The building belongs to Bohumin Town Hall.
Additional reporting by AFP
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