Tragic fire at socially excluded locality in the Czech Republic results in four deaths, two of them children

Detectives were at the scene that morning. In the afternoon, a medical examiner went to the scene and a canine unit specially trained to sniff out accelerants was deployed.

Petr Pelikus, spokesperson for the regional firefighters, told the Czech Press Agency (ČTK) that four bodies were removed from the scene and handed over to the police and that the site of the fire was monitored into the afternoon. Somebody had called emergency line 112 at about 8 AM to report the fire.

Firefighters responded and the first three bodies were found once the fire had been put out. Police later reported that a fourth person had been found dead upon further inspection of the scene.

Firefighters got the blaze under control at 9:40 AM. “It was a larger, single-storey garden house near Marxova Street,” the firefighter spokesperson said.

“Four units responded this morning,” Pelikus told ČTK. Regional police spokesperson Veronika Hyšplerová told ČTK in the afternoon that two adults and two children had been found dead at the scene.

The testimonies of those living in the surrounding homes, predominantly inhabited by Romani people, differ as to what happened and who is likely to have been in the cottage. According to Miroslav Brož of the Konexe organization, who was on the scene before noon, the small cottage was on the outskirts of the socially excluded locality near Marxova Street and could have been occupied by a Romani family.

However, Marcel Packert, another resident of Ústí nad Labem, does not believe the family was of Romani origin. “Those who died in the garden house that caught fire in Předlice were not Romani, they were non-Roma,” Packert told Romea.cz.

“My wife’s cousin knew the deceased personally, she gave me this information,” Packert told Romea.cz, adding that he believes in such a tragic case there is no point in asking whether the victims were Romani. “The family who lived there were poor but respectable,” news server Deník.cz quotes local Martin Cibrík, who responded to the tragedy on Facebook.

According to local Jan Císař, who photographed the blaze, the gentleman who lived in the cottage brought his grandchildren there on the weekends sometimes. “I know the gentleman personally, my garden is next to his, he was a nice person,” Císař told Deník.cz.

However, news server Novinky.cz has cited locals who had a different version of who lived in the home, saying the cottage had long been occupied by just one woman. “Her relatives from Děčín used to visit her, though,” a local resident said.

“They say one lady managed to escape but the others didn’t,” this resident told the daily Právo. Michal Mohr of the “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (SPD) party, who is the municipal council member in charge of excluded localities, also visited the scene of the blaze.

“If somebody had been living there permanently, it needs to be verified how that was possible, because those spaces are neither zoned nor approved for permanent residence,” Mohr told Deník.cz that morning. The cause of the fire is not yet clear.

According to Brož, locals believe propane-butane canisters exploded at the structure. “Today’s fire is the consequence of the city and other institutions failing for years if not decades to find a functional solution to the catastrophic situation in the ghetto of Předlice,” Brož told Romea.cz.

Hyšplerová told ČTK that police completed their search of the scene in the late afternoon and will return there on Sunday morning. Detectives will continue their investigation with staff from the Technical Institute for Fire Prevention.

Roughly 2,000 – 3,000 residents live in Předlice. The municipal department is divided between what is called Nová Předlice and the rest of the quarter.

The core of the socially excluded locality is on Nová Předlice territory, comprising the streets of Marxova, Prostřední, and the housing blocks between those streets and Školní náměstí. Most of the people living there are Romani.