Police investigate fire in Zlín as public endangerment through negligence
Detectives are investigating a major fire at a high-rise building in the former Baťa factory complex in Zlín for suspected criminal public endangerment through negligence. The potential perpetrator faces a sentence of up to five years imprisonment.
Police investigate fire in Zlín as public endangerment through negligence
Detectives are investigating a major fire at a high-rise building in the former Baťa factory complex in Zlín for suspected criminal public endangerment through negligence. If convicted, the perpetrator faces a prison sentence of up to five years. Police have initiated criminal proceedings in connection with the incident, said spokeswoman Monika Kozumplíková. The total amount of damage caused has not yet been established.
Building number 34, owned by the company Cream, caught fire on Thursday morning. It has progressively collapsed in two places, with approximately half of the structure remaining. According to available information, a shoe storage facility belonging to Vasky company on the ninth floor caught fire first. From there, flames spread to other floors and the roof. Firefighters have had the fire under control since the night between Thursday and Friday, with flames no longer spreading, said incident commander Zdeněk Otrusina to Czech Television. Fire suppression work is continuing, however, and the site is expected to be handed over to the owner on Monday.
Streets in the vicinity of the building will remain closed until at least Monday. Access to the area around the fire site is restricted by police tape. "Police will be guarding the area around the fire. Any breach of the ban on crossing the police tape will be dealt with according to the law. The closure will remain in place until the fire is completely extinguished. We ask citizens to respect the instructions of firefighters and police at the scene," said Kozumplíková.
Fifteen units of professional and volunteer firefighters are operating at the scene. A police helicopter has also been deployed, which is dropping water onto the affected building. "We will continue to extinguish the fire and cool the structures to prevent the spread of fire emissions. We appeal to citizens to close their windows and not to ventilate," said Pavel Řezníček, spokesman for the regional fire service. Due to the danger of further collapse, firefighters cannot approach the building closer than seventy metres. If the remaining structure does not collapse on its own, demolition will be necessary.
Václav Staněk, owner and founder of Vasky, said the warehouse contained approximately 75,000 pairs of shoes, clothing and accessories of the Vasky and Botas brands with a retail value of 150 to 180 million crowns. Václav Hrbek, owner of Alpine Pro, stated that his company had goods stored in the building valued at over half a billion crowns. The Packeta group, which operates the Zásilkovna service, had around 9,000 parcels remaining in the complex. The exact total amount of damage has not yet been specified.
Source: Google News CZ — Crime (cs)