After fire: “New dimension” of arson
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After the fire in an apartment building in the station district in the city of Salzburg, the police investigations are in full swing. A resident of the house accidentally noticed the fire on Sunday evening. It could have ended in an inferno, says the responsible fire expert.
As luck would have it, a resident of the house was in the basement to do laundry on Sunday evening – she noticed the smoke and reacted immediately. According to fire expert Walter Kittl, the fire was deliberately set in two places. Fire accelerants were not found. Nevertheless, Kittl is certain that an attempt was made to cause as much damage as possible, “because the fact that two fire protection systems were spread here is new to me. That has a new dimension.”
Full fire only just avoided
If the fire hadn’t been discovered so quickly, things could have turned out very differently. “This garbage collection room was equipped with around 20 large garbage cans that were overflowing and there were also garbage bags on the floor in some cases. If there was a full fire here, which I believe would have broken out about two to three minutes after the fire was discovered, there would have been massive smoke development in the entire stairwell and the entire complex would have had to be evacuated,” says the fire expert.
The criminal consequences for the perpetrators range from arson and property damage to attempted murder. But the perpetrators must first be found before charges can be brought. The police said there were no new clues. Criminalists are currently interviewing residents and possible witnesses in order to track down the arsonists.