Koprivnice, North Moravia, Jan 8 (CTK) – Czech firefighters got a large fire that broke out in an industrial area in Koprivnice under their control after 11 hours on Sunday morning, regional spokesman Marek Gasparin told CTK.
The fire claimed no life and nobody has been injured. It was reported at 19:40 on January 7.
The damage is estimated at up to 100 million crowns, which would make it one of the largest fires in the Czech Republic in the last several months.
“The flames damaged the roof construction and the roof collapsed in several places. A structural engineer then decided that a part of the building must be pulled down,” Gasparin said.
At one moment, 46 firefighting vehicles were trying to get the fire under control last night.
It is still unknown why the fire started in a hall covering an area of 12,000 square meters. The police will start the investigation on Monday.
The destroyed hall was a former press shop of the Tatra lorry maker, and several different firms operated in it currently, such as a MOT test station and a window production.
Gasparin said the strong frost made it very hard to fight the fire. Temperature dropped to 15 degrees Celsius below zero and the water used by the firefighting teams quickly turned into ice.
The biggest fire in the last 30 years occurred in 2002 when part of the Spolchemie chemical plant in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, was destroyed. This fire caused damage of more than two billion crowns.
