Six Killed In Czech Restaurant Fire

In a suspected heating accident, six people were killed and eight were hurt in a restaurant fire in a city in the Czech Republic, according to rescue services on Sunday.

The neighborhood fire service posted on Facebook that “the fire spread extremely quickly after a patio gas heater was probably knocked over.”

A wooden beer garden at a housing estate in the city of Most, which is located about 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Prague, was the site of the fire that broke out in the U Kojota (“Coyote”) restaurant.

It was reported at 2217 GMT on Saturday and was under control by midnight, the fire service said.

“Despite all efforts… the fire had tragic consequences for six people”, it said.

Eight others were injured, six of them seriously, and all were taken to hospitals with burns.

Regional emergency service director Petr Bures reported to Czech TV’s public broadcaster, “five were taken to Prague, two to the Most hospital, and one to the regional capital of Usti nad Labem,” adding that one was taken there.

Some of them have seriously broken bones, according to Bures, and their lives are in danger.

Interior Minister Vit Rakusan reported on X to say that around 30 people had been evacuated from the restaurant and a nearby block of apartments.

One firefighter, Zdenek Blaha, told Czech TV that all six victims were found inside the restaurant, without specifying whether they were in the beer garden.

He claimed that the heater had exploded, so the first four fire trucks arrived six minutes after the fire was reported and discovered the entire restaurant in flames.

In total, twenty-eight fire trucks and 63 firefighters were needed to extinguish the blaze.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed his condolences, calling the accident “a great tragedy” in an X post.

Zbynek Dvorak, the regional police chief, claimed that the fire was caused by carelessness and that police had ruled out terrorism.

Source: Channels TV