We can't rule anything out when it comes to the fires of recent days. An investigation is ongoing - Poland's Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on Monday (May 13). "We are checking CCTV, phone records - it's natural that all leads must be investigated," he added.
Freshly appointed as new interior minister, Siemoniak was asked at a press conference on Monday if Polish services were checking whether persons from foreign countries could have been involved in the fires that broke out in Warsaw and Siemianowice Śląskie in recent days.
He replied that since Sunday he has been in contact with the Internal Security Agency (ABW) in order to clarify all and any concerns of this kind.
Around noon on Monday, another fire broke out. This time in a high school in Grodzisk Mazowiecki near Warsaw, during the matriculation exams in English and Polish. Some 60 students and teachers managed to safely escape the building before the fire service arrived.
At a meeting later on Monday, Siemoniak received a report compiled by chiefs of State Fire Service and the police regarding the series of fires. The ministry said on the X social media platform that potential changes in legislation and in technical requirements for buildings were discussed during the meeting.
Siemoniak: we can't rule anything out
"It's too early to discuss anything yet. An investigation is ongoing. We will certainly keep you updated. We must consider all variants here," Siemoniak said.
"We all know what situation we're in," he added.
The minister reminded that the ABW had detained an Ukrainian man who wanted to set fire to a facility in Wrocław earlier this year. The had man worked for Russian intelligence services.
"We are in a time in which we can't rule anything out.
"We are checking CCTV, phone records - it's natural that all leads must be investigated," the minister stressed.
Warsaw Metropolitan Police spokesperson Robert Szumiata said on Monday afternoon there were no grounds at the time to establish any connection between all recent fires.
Fires in Warsaw and Silesia
A massive fire that broke out on Saturday night in a shopping center in Warsaw almost completely destroyed the place, authorities said. Nobody was hurt during the fire.
The Marywilska 44 with almost 1,400 commercial units - including many kiosks - was among the biggest shopping centers in Warsaw. It was owned and managed by Mirbud MRB.WA.
"Almost 100% of it was burned. The fire is being extinguished and this will take many hours, perhaps several hours," Mariusz Feltynowski, commander-in-chief of the State Fire Service told a news conference on Sunday.
He added that almost 200 firefighters were taking part in extinguishing the fire.
Another fire broke out on Sunday in a waste sorting plant in Warsaw's neighborhood of Siekierki.
That same day, approximately 2,500 square meters of Kampinos Forest burned down in Janówek.
On Friday, a fire broke out at a landfill in Michałkowice, a district of southern Poland's town of Siemianowice Ślaskie. The flames swept through the entire site.
According to city authorities, several thousand tons of various chemical substances had been illegally stored at the landfill, alongside similar amounts of plastic waste.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP, Reuters