<h1>Deputy Mayor of Krnov: The fire at the former textile factory likely did not occur by chance</h1>

Krnov - The fire in the former textile factory Karnola in Krnov, located in the Bruntál region, which is a national cultural monument, may have been set intentionally. The deputy mayor of the city, Michal Brunclík (ČSSD), told ČTK today that there are concerns or reasonable suspicions that the fire did not start accidentally. According to him, the building was secured.

“The building is in the immediate center of the city, and due to the fact that there was to be a commencement of construction work under the subsidy title for national cultural monuments in the spring of 2018, our workers have been there quite often in recent days, carrying out cleaning of the premises, moving furniture, and so on,” said Brunclík.

According to him, the building was therefore under very good control. “We had secured entry points, all windows were glazed. It is a building intended for reconstruction, so it is not in ideal technical condition, but on the other hand, it was not possible to enter freely and move around. If someone did break in, that is still speculation, but it has been hinted that this is likely the case, and of course, it would have been through some violence,” the deputy mayor clarified.

According to him, the first coordination meeting took place in the morning, where the commanders of fire rescue and police were present. “The firefighters will finish their work during this morning and will slowly leave the area; the police will come next,” noted Brunclík.

He stated that the city is currently unable to estimate how much time the police will need for their work. City representatives cannot yet inspect the building. “At this moment, as the property owners, we do not know exactly to what extent it is devastated, whether we have lost everything in the most valuable part of the dereliction or if some segments will be salvageable,” Brunclík remarked.

He added that the city must hire a structural engineer to assess whether the building is safe and if it can be saved. “We are metaphorically at the beginning. We have of course already undertaken some smaller tasks. This means that the technical services are cleaning the immediate vicinity of the building from debris. The property management department will ensure in the future that the building is closed off and that there can be no entry of unauthorized persons. We are addressing how to provisionally deal with the missing part of the roof and how to manage the construction openings,” Brunclík noted.