A fire damaged the wooden St. Michael's Church from the 17th century in Prague

Prague - A wooden church of Saint Michael was on fire today in the Kinský Garden in Prague. The fire affected the lower part of the building and three towers; the shingle roof partially collapsed, and the structure burned down to the beams, reported ČTK's reporter on site. The firefighters are determining the extent of the damage and the cause of the fire, said Luděk Prudil, commander of the Prague firefighters, on site. The monument protected building from the 17th century was moved to the park during the first Czechoslovak Republic to become part of the collections of the Ethnographic Museum. The municipality will announce a public collection for the restoration of the damaged church on Thursday, said its spokesperson Vít Hofman to ČTK.

Due to the number of units responding to the fire, the firefighters declared a second alarm level. "The church was hit by fire in its entirety," they tweeted. "The fire practically destroyed it completely," they later added. According to the released video, the upper part of the main tower and two smaller spires collapsed. Martin Kavka, spokesperson for the Prague Fire Brigade, stated before 4:00 PM that the fire was under control and firefighters were extinguishing the charred wooden structure. The church was completely extinguished at 6:40 PM. "The area was checked with a thermal camera for hidden hotspots. Supervision will take place in the evening," the firefighters announced on Twitter.

According to Prudil, firefighters had to carry several pressurized propane-butane cylinders out of the church and cool them down, as one of them was on fire. No one was injured in the fire. "The damage and cause are under investigation," he added.

The firefighters received the report of the fire shortly before 3:00 PM, responding with ten vehicles, including a tanker and one ladder truck. They cordoned off the intervention site with tape; thick smoke was rising from the building, according to ČTK's reporter. Prudil stated that the intervention was complicated, as water had to be sourced from a distance. Firefighters from four professional and two volunteer units participated in the operation.

"The councilor for culture, Hana Třeštíková (Prague Sobě), initiated the creation of a public collection for the restoration of the church," Hofman said. According to him, the capital city will launch it on Thursday. The damaged monument is located in the Kinský Gardens, which Prague owns and manages through a management company. The church is still part of the collections of the Ethnographic Museum and is used by the church.

The Orthodox Church of Saint Michael, sometimes referred to as the Carpathian church, originally stood in the village of Velké Loučky near Mukachevo in Ukraine. It was dismantled, transported, and rebuilt in Prague in 1929 during the then Subcarpathian Ruthenia, which was part of Czechoslovakia between the world wars.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jevhen Perebyjnis, expressed shock at the news of the church fire on his Twitter account. "It was transported to Prague from Ukrainian territory and thus serves as one of the connecting ‘bridges’ between Ukraine and the Czech Republic," the ambassador wrote. He called on the police to conduct a detailed investigation into the fire.

In the Czech Republic, a historic wooden church burned down in Gutech in August 2017, which dated back to the 16th century. The fire caused damage of around 20 million crowns. The regional court in Ostrava sentenced three young men from the Ostrava and Frýdek-Místek regions to 3.5 years, eight and nine years in prison for setting the church on fire. A replica of the church is being constructed at the site of the original church in Gutech.

In April 2002, flames destroyed the wooden Church of Saint Catherine in Ostrava-Hrabová, also built in the 16th century. The fire, which likely resulted from an electrical fault, caused damage estimated at about 20 million crowns. The church was restored in 2004 as an authentic replica.

Among other wooden heritage buildings, the Libušín cottage in Pustevny in the Beskids also burned down. The 1899 building designed by Dušan Jurkovič was destroyed by flames in March 2014. After renovation, it was opened to the public this summer.