Fires
Arson in Solingen leaves four dead – search is underway
During the drama, a family was unable to escape from the attic. photo
© David Young/dpa
It is a tragedy with terrible details: a young family perishes in a fire at home. Initial findings indicate arson. A search is underway for the perpetrators.
After the fire, which was allegedly deliberately set in an apartment building in Solingen, in which a young family was killed, the search for the perpetrators has begun. To clarify the major fire, the The public prosecutor’s office in Wuppertal also called on the public to help. A tip telephone and an online portal have been activated. According to the public prosecutor, there was initially no suspicion of a crime against a specific person. There are also no indications of a “xenophobic motive”.
On Wednesday, the public prosecutor’s office presented the results of a preliminary report from fire experts on Monday’s devastating fire. The investigators therefore assume that the arson was intentionally set. The public prosecutor’s office said that residues of an accelerant were clearly detected in the wooden stairwell. The investigation is now underway into allegations of murder or attempted murder.
Parents and two small children dead
During the drama on the night of Monday to Tuesday, a family probably coming from Bulgaria was unable to escape from the attic. The 28 and 29-year-old parents died along with their three-year-old toddler and an infant who was only five months old. The baby’s body was only found hours later in the badly burned attic.
It was no longer possible to escape via the wooden staircase; the flames had eaten into the roof within a few minutes due to the wooden construction and the resulting chimney effect. When the fire brigade arrived, the wooden stairwell was already ablaze.
Residents jumped into the street in fear of death
In fear of their lives, residents jumped out of the 100-year-old burning building onto the street. Tenants on the third floor suffered serious injuries from the fire and jumping onto the street, according to prosecutors. According to a statement from the city of Solingen, there are three seriously injured people. According to the public prosecutor’s office, another five people from lower floors were also injured, but less seriously.
The catastrophic fire awakened bad memories for many Solingen residents: In May 1993, five women and girls of Turkish origin were murdered in a nighttime arson attack with a right-wing extremist background. Fire accelerant was also used. The Solingen attack marked the low point of a wave of racist attacks on people of foreign origin in Germany.