When the emergency services arrived at the apartment building in Gothenburg, they were met by a fully developed fire, which Home & Rent was the first to report on.
The smoke divers finally managed to gather the neighbors outside the house, and it then became clear who in their eyes were guilty, namely the couple who lived in the burning apartment.
The man, who is 65 years old, was then sitting some distance away from the rest of the neighbours. When the police tried to talk to him to find out what happened, they got no answers. Instead, he began to cry.
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The couple smoked in bed
In the apartment they found large quantities of cigarettes and lighters, but also the couple’s cat, which died in the fire.
In the police report, it appears that they asked the man if he usually smokes in bed. After a long silence, he had mumbled a “yes” and then burst into tears.
It was not the first time that the neighbors suspected that the couple smoked indoors, but during the months that they lived in the apartment, several had talked to the landlord about a smell of smoke that spread from the apartment.
In addition, there had been a small fire in the couple’s apartment just a few days before the big fire. The fire alarm then went off with the neighbor, who immediately called the emergency services to the couple’s apartment.
That day, they managed to put out the fire before it spread in the home.
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The living room. Photo: The police’s preliminary investigation The bedroom where the couple was lying when they discovered the fire. Photo: Police preliminary investigation The windows have exploded from the heat and have been replaced by plywood sheets. Photo: The police’s preliminary investigation”We tried our best”
The couple, who were only living in the apartment temporarily while their permanent residence was being renovated, then told police they had tried to quit smoking indoors, but it was difficult to quit after smoking indoors for over 40 years.
– We smoked inside the apartment at first, but then we found out that the apartment was non-smoking, so we tried to go outside instead. We tried as best we could, said the man’s partner in questioning with the police.
The man was charged after the fire with public negligence, but was ultimately cleared of criminal charges because the police investigation could not show exactly how the fire started, it reports Home & Rent.
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