Prague, Aug 23 (CTK) – The extensive fire of a textile storage facility in a factory complex in Prague-Vysocany that broke out on Saturday evening was fully extinguished Sunday and the investigation into its causes started, Prague fire corps head Roman Hlinovsky has told CTK.
The firefighters started exploring the site with a thermographic device to seek other possible epicentres. If no ones are found, they will hand over the building to the owner.
A structural engineer examined the building in the morning and he allowed both investigators and firefighters to enter the storage facility.
According to preliminary information, goods worth 270 million crowns burnt down in the store. The damage caused to the building was put at ten to 15 million crowns.
No hazardous substances leaked into the air during the fire and no one was injured.
Investigators from the police and the fire corps are looking for the cause of the fire. They have taken samples to be analysed and made a photographic documentation, Hlinovsky said.
They will keep searching the site Sunday and the police investigators will continue on Monday morning. The police will protect the facility until then, police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova said.
The fire did not spread from the morning, but some epicentres were still burning.
Hlinovsky said the firefighters would assist on the spot the whole week.
A subsequent thermal vision measurement will show whether they must watch the building in the night as well.
Some 90 firefighters, about 40 voluntary and 50 professional ones, have been extinguishing the fire. They keep measuring the combustion products, but no dangerous concentrations of poisonous substances were confirmed so far.
The Prague City Hall is to help measure the products of combustion. It has said a smoke cloud from the fire site was moving above the city in the night, but the limits of harmful substances concentrations were not exceeded anywhere in Prague, according to the data from monitoring stations.
On Saturday night, the firefighters removed part of pressure bottles from the facility over the thread of explosion, while the other bottles were cooled with water.
Apart from the firefighters’ units, a helicopter helped extinguish the fire.
The traffic in the surroundings of the fire was restricted in the night. It was resumed after 11:00 Sunday.
