Arson destroys Ukrainian refugee residence in Germany

A fire, apparently caused according to data collected by the Police, has destroyed this past night a residence for Ukrainian refugees in the town of Gross Strömkendorf, north of the city of Wismar, in the northern East German state of Mecklenburg-Antepomerania. “According to our current information, the fourteen residents were able to leave the building unharmed. Also the three employees,” said a spokesman for the rural district of Nordwestmecklenburg. The Police part of the assumption that the fire was probably caused by extreme right-wing or neo-Nazi elements.

On Wednesday, a patrol had gone to the place, a hotel converted into a residence for refugees, after discovering a swastika painted on the entrance sign, said Tino Schomann, district chief and volunteer firefighter. “Due to my long experience as a firefighter, I am assuming that the fire was started intentionally,” Schomann added. The Police stressed that an expert is already studying the origin of the incident in the building, managed by the German Red Cross. The case has been taken over by the local prosecutor’s office.

The fourteen occupants of the residence were transferred immediately after their rescue to another asylum. The fire gave rise to a large deployment of firefighters, who came with 120 men and about 20 vehicles. When the first units arrived, the shelter employees and several neighbors tried to put out the flames with the help of fire extinguishers and hoses. However, they could not prevent the fire from reaching the thatched roof of the building, classified as historic, which favored and aggravated the fire.

“The roof collapsed before my eyes. Only the outer walls are left standing,” Schomann told local media. The firefighters were able, despite everything, to prevent the flames from spreading to neighboring buildings. The fourteen Ukrainian refugees had been sheltered at the Red Cross residence on the Baltic Sea coast since last March, shortly after the invasion of their country by Russia. A first estimate raises the material damage caused by the fire to about one million euros.