The police suspect that the perpetrators of the accident, from which the fourteen tenants of the property escaped unharmed, belong to Nazi or far-right movements
A fire, apparently caused according to data collected by police, destroyed a home for Ukrainian refugees last night in the town of Gross Strömkendorf, north of the town of Wismar, in the north-eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. “According to our current information, the fourteen residents were able to leave the property unharmed. Also the three employees,” said a spokesman for the rural district of Nordwestmecklenburg. The police assumed that the fire was probably caused by extreme right-wing or neo-Nazi elements.
On Wednesday, a patrol had gone to the site, a hotel converted into a refugee shelter, after discovering a swastika painted on the entrance sign, said Tino Schomann, district chief and volunteer firefighter. “Due to my long experience as a firefighter, I assume that the fire was deliberately lit,” Schomann added. Police stressed that an expert is already studying the origin of the incident in the building, managed by the German Red Cross. The case has been taken over by the local prosecutor.
The fourteen residents of the house were transferred to another shelter immediately after their rescue. The fire prompted a large deployment of firefighters, who came with 120 men and about 20 vehicles. When the first units arrived, shelter workers and some neighbors tried to extinguish the flames using fire extinguishers and hoses. However, they were unable to prevent the fire from reaching the thatched roof of the building, classified as historic, which furthered and exacerbated the fire.
“The roof collapsed before my eyes. Only the outer walls are still standing,” Schomann told local media. Despite everything, the fire brigade was able to prevent the flames from spreading to neighboring buildings. The fourteen Ukrainian refugees have been housed in the Red Cross residence on the coast of the Baltic Sea since last March, shortly after the invasion of their country by Russia. An initial estimate puts the material damage caused by the fire at approximately one million euros.
Source: La Verdad
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