Cieszyn. A tenement house collapsed. Missing and injured, 170 firefighters in action

On Sunday morning, a three-story tenement house collapsed (the first information indicated that the building was two-story). The fire in the tenement house spread to neighboring buildings, from which 21 people were evacuated.

There were 11 people reported in the collapsed building. Two of them are considered missing. They are adults: a 78-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man from two apartments on the first and second floors. Three people – residents of neighboring tenement houses – were injured. Two injured people were taken to hospital and have already left the hospital. One person stayed at the scene after being examined by emergency medical teams.

After 9 a.m. the fire was brought under control and extinguishing began. About 170 firefighters are taking part in the operation, which may last until late in the evening.

Brig. Aneta Gołębiowska, spokeswoman for the Silesian Fire Department, said on TVN24 after 4 p.m. that one rescue dog had already started searching for missing people. The firefighter added that they managed to secure the wall of the neighboring building.

At a briefing at 6 p.m., the Silesian Voivode, Marek Wójcik, announced that rescue operations were still ongoing.

– We are still looking for two people missing after the collapse of a tenement house. One hundred firefighters from the State Fire Service and one hundred volunteer firefighters work on site. The working conditions of firefighters are difficult because there is very little space (…). The location of the missing persons is still being determined. We also used dogs to search. However, the dogs did not clearly indicate the location of the missing people, he reported.

The voivode said that in order to remove the rubble faster, a crane was brought from the State Forests, and representatives of the Territorial Defense Forces were also involved in the activities. – WOT's activities consist in searching the rubble that was removed from the scene in order to recover as much evidence as possible, as well as personal belongings of people who were residents of this collapsed tenement house – he added.

– We suspect that in two or three hours we will be able to get to the ceiling, where there was a room in which the second injured person could have been – said the Chief Commander of the State Fire Service, Brig. Mariusz Feltynowski

Earlier, around 1:30 p.m., Feltynowski reported that “the search of the rubble is ongoing from both sides, both from the front wall and from the back of the building.” – The telephone of the person who was on the second floor was physically there, but it is not working. It is assumed that this person was physically there. The second missing person is a woman who was on the first floor, the commander said.

In addition to firefighters, there are also: 55 policemen securing the area around the collapsed tenement house.

According to the officers' findings, there were three people in the tenement house at the time of the explosion. Two were reported missing, and the third got out of the building on her own. Just before the disaster, in the early morning hours, one of the residents left for work, miraculously avoiding tragedy.

Superintendent Roman Kuster, deputy commander of the police, announced during a press briefing that a 12-person team of experts had been appointed to deal with the case. Four prosecutors are also working on site.

The police have a 3D scanner that will help in examining the crash site. The officers have already secured some materials for the investigation, including: building gas inspections. The tenement house's residents are being interrogated.

Kuster reported that the tenement house was not heated by gas. – The gas was reaching the stoves and stoves. Heating was municipal. The last inspection of the gas installation was carried out in 2024, said the deputy police commander.

The superintendent added that the investigation in this case will be conducted into a crime under Art. 163 of the Penal Code. This provision concerns causing an event that threatens the health or life of many people.

As previously explained by Brig. Aneta Gołębiowska, spokeswoman for the Silesian Fire Department, the building was connected to the gas installation, but the reasons for the collapse of the tenement house are unknown. The officer on duty from the Provincial Rescue Coordination Station reported in the morning about a gas explosion in the tenement house – the report came at exactly 4:08.

Former spokesman for the Chief Commander of the State Fire Service, Paweł Frątczak, said on TVN24 that the firefighters' action was “very difficult”. The reason for this is, among others, the fact that the tenement house was located in the city center among compact buildings. The elements that spread the fire very quickly were “flammable ceilings and a flammable staircase due to their age.”

– Another critical element is the fact that the fire occurred at night – he added. He stated that “the fire is very intense” and it will be “an operation lasting many hours.”

Wiedza Street is approximately 400 meters long and runs from the main square of the city to the immediate vicinity of the border bridge with Czech Republic. Along it, on both sides, there are adjacent tenement houses.

Przemysław Rembielak, an experienced firefighter from Poznań, vice-president of the Association of Independent Fire Experts, talked on TVN24 about what a search operation usually looks like in the ruins of a building. The expert emphasized that the Specialist Search and Rescue Group from Jastrzębie-Zdrój is very experienced, especially in securing unstable structures.

– One of the elements is the safety of the place of operation. This is an oxymoron, a contradiction. This place is dangerous, firefighters should not be brought there, and at the same time the two missing people are a signal that they should be brought there – emphasized Rembielak.

– If a tenement house or part of it is collapsing, there are elements that are still hanging above your head. Even introducing a rescue dog must be prepared. No one will bring a dog in if it is extremely dangerous there or, for example, if there is a fire – said the firefighter. He added that the introduction of rescue dogs into the rubble “is aimed at locating missing people alive.” – This means that a rescue dog should not detect a dead person, because a rescue operation involves searching for the living to save them. The bodies can be removed later, said Przemysław Rembielak.