The summer terrace of the Views Shisha establishment on Hlavná street caught fire, just a few steps from Dóm svätej Alžbety and the Singing Fountain. Firefighters were notified about the fire at 1:59 AM on Thursday, July 30, and when the first brigáda (Brigáda - a firefighting team) arrived at the scene, the fire was already raging.
Eleven firefighters with five units of equipment went out to extinguish the fire, working with two hoses. The fire destroyed chairs and umbrellas on the terrace, damaged the entrance doors of the establishment, and window frames of neighboring premises. The preliminary amount of direct damage was estimated at 30,000 euros: only the metal frames of the furniture remained from the summer terrace.
There are residential apartments above the establishment, so alongside extinguishing the fire, firefighters checked the common areas and homes. Some residents did not respond to knocking on the door, so firefighters used high-rise equipment to knock on windows to make sure there was no smoke inside the apartments. No threat was found, evacuation was not needed, and no one was injured, said the spokesman for Košice firefighters, Jozef Bálint.
Arson — and possibly ordered
As the Košicak portal reports, surveillance cameras recorded a man in dark clothes who sequentially set fire to umbrellas on the terrace. The police detained the suspect shortly after the incident. According to media reports, he told investigators that he acted on order.
The owner of the establishment considers two motives: unfair competition or racism, with manifestations of which, according to him, he had already encountered before.
The investigator of the criminal police department of the district office in Košice started a criminal proceeding under the article on damage to another's property (prečin poškodzovania cudzej veci). Procedural actions are currently being carried out with the detainee. The police do not disclose details to avoid compromising the investigation, said the spokeswoman of the regional police, Jana Illésová.
If the detainee really acted on order, the case may continue: investigators will have to look not only for the perpetrator but also for the person who ordered it. We are following the development of events.
