It was a devastating fire that broke out a week ago in a residential building in the Kleinmünchen district of Linz: Around 70 people had to be brought to safety in the middle of the night, three people came to the hospital with injuries, including the man in whose apartment that Fire had started. He had suffered from smoke inhalation. The house had to be locked. The tenants stood on the street.
Details of the cause of the fire have now become known: A burning cigarette may have started the fire. The suspect is said to have had 4.5 per thousand alcohol in his blood. As reported, the fire should have broken out around midnight in an apartment on the top floor of the building on Schörgenhubstrasse. It quickly spread under the tin roof and spread to neighboring buildings.
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High damage
Dozens of firefighters fought the flames, and the residents who took them outside found shelter from the cold in two Linz AG buses. Some of them were later taken to the Kleinmünchen senior citizens’ center, where emergency quarters were set up for them, the rest of them were housed with relatives. The extinguishing work continued in the morning of the following day. All that was left of the roof and the upper level was a charred skeleton.
The damage caused by the flames and the extinguishing water is likely to be in the seven-digit range. If the current suspicion is confirmed, the suspect could face charges. The investigations are still ongoing, the police report should be available to the public prosecutor in one to two weeks.
Source: Nachrichten
