Arsung in Schönau: Home owner in court!

Arsung in Schönau: Home owner in court!

In the case of a alleged arson in an asylum accommodation in Oberndorf, Schönau municipality, the public prosecutor Linz has charged the building's 40-year-old owner. This is accused of having laid the fire that broke out in a former inn from September 9 to September 10, 2024. According to Tips are 16 asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Somalia Building was housed. All residents were able to bring themselves to safety, but six of them were hospitalized with suspicion of flue gas poisoning.

The fire broke out on several places on the ground floor and quickly spread to the upper floor and the roof structure. In the area of ​​the fire breakout, garden tools and liquid fuels were found, which apparently were used to accelerate the fire. A large contingent of the fire brigade was necessary to extinguish the fire. Initially, a xenophobic background was suspected, but these assumptions could not be confirmed. After eight months of investigations, the police identified the owner as a suspected cause of the fire.

indictment and possible motifs

The indictment against the woman is to bring about a conflagration, which, it seems, resulted from financial problems of the homeowner. Despite the serious allegations, the accused has any guilt and states that she checked the house because of a defective heating. The process date is to be announced in the next few weeks, according to the reporting of Tips .

This incident is not isolated. As a fire statistics in refugee accommodation shows, there have been a number of fire events in recent years, some of which were caused by third parties. These are often categorized as a “intercession” in order to avoid legal debates. Over 597 fire events have been registered since the beginning of the 2015 recording, with a significant part of classified as xenophobic motivated. Injuries, mainly through flue gas intoxications, could be observed in a variety of incidents, such as inuri reported.

judgment in the Wassertrüdingen case

In another case, the asylum accommodation in Wassertrüdingen, an arsonist stood in court. There, a 34-year-old man was convicted of arson in December 2023. On November 23, 2022, an uninhabited refugee accommodation burned and the man known by his building cleaning company was identified after he had parked his van before the crime. The judgment included a prison sentence of two years on probation, but the presiding judge did not show any demonstrable radical right -wing background. The arson was described as "inhuman". The man regrets his deed and apologized to those affected, as Br reported.

The various incidents show how important it is to increase the security standards in refugee accommodation and to improve fire protection measures. The public is now expecting significant progress in this area from the responsible authorities.