Cracow. The first judgment on the fire of the City Hall Archives. Appraiser unlawfully convicted

Andrzej H., a fire protection appraiser, was found by a court guilty about the city fire in Krakow. In February 2021, the fire consumed almost 20 kilometers of files. According to the court, H. was required to prepare a fire script, but he did not do so. He was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years. The verdict is unlawful.

On Wednesday, the Krakow District Court announced a verdict in the first and for now the only trial related to the investigation in the case Fire of the Archives of the City of Krakow, which in February 2021. He destroyed two halls with nearly 20 kilometers of current files.

Archive fire in Krakow. First sentence

The accused in this case Andrzej H. was entitled to agree on the compliance of the architectural and construction project with fire protection requirements. The allegations of him concerned the certificate of untruth at the stage of construction documentation in 2017. It was about notification addressed to the Provincial Commander of the State Fire Service, in which he informed him about the agreement of the project in accordance with the provisions, although no fire scenario was developed.

The court stated that in the case of the municipal archive such a scenario was needed. He ruled against a fire protection appraiser for half a year in prison suspended for two years and PLN 3,000. The prosecutor's office requested such a judgment. The decision is unlawful.

Defense will appeal against the judgment

After leaving the courtroom, Andrzej H. noted that he did not agree with the court's decision. In his opinion, the fire scenario was not required for the building of the municipal archive. He assessed that the court relied on the false opinion of experts, who in his opinion interpreted the regulations. His defender Marcin Ostrowski announced an appeal. – The court did not convince us in any way. We still do not know what court the source of the fire scenario adopted – he commented.

The judge proclaiming the verdict stipulated that this proceeding did not provide the answer to the question why the archive was burned and the accused should not be associated directly with the fire itself.

– The fact that the court issued a conviction does not mean that the accused for this fire is a directly responsible person – emphasized judge Sławomir Szyrmer and added that the court focused only on resolving the issue contained in the indictment.

– It was not the obligation to draw a fire scenario. The accused's duty was to ensure that this fire scenario was. And there was no fire scenario in this matter. Therefore, the court decided that, having such extensive knowledge that the accused has undoubtedly had, who has been an appraiser for many years (…), it is obvious that he had to know that this fire scenario in these specific conditions must be created there – justified judge Szyrmer.

The device was supposed to put out the fire and started it

The court pointed out that he did not deal with the question whether the fire scenario would prevent the emergence of a city fire or limited its spread. He also pointed to a number of other irregularities that occurred at the next stages of the investment. He reminded, among others, that the archive finally installed other devices for extinguishing the fire than the accused appraiser agreed. He added that at the time of installation it was pioneering equipment with a fairly complex procedure for launching.

The judge recalled the opinion of experts, according to which the possible cause of the city fire of the archive was the automatic launch of one of such devices. As he said, the device “which was to be used to extinguish the fire caused a fire.” The hot substance was to be a direct cause.

– We have four storage halls built -in shelves, which contain paper files in paper binders. A hot slag with a temperature of about 800 degrees begins to pour out. You can imagine what happens next. As experts write, a fire begins, which belongs to the so -called deep fires – the judge described.

Seven people with allegations

The indictment against the fire protection appraiser was sent to court in November 2023. For now, the only indictment regarding the archive fire, but the prosecutor's office is still being investigated. It concerns intentional causing a fire that threatens the property in large sizes, i.e. the archive building, with undetermined value.

The allegations were presented to seven people, in addition to the appraiser – the electrical works manager, construction manager, investor supervision inspector, firefighter and employees of the Poviat Building Supervision Inspectorate.

Almost 112 hours of firefighting

The fire of the Archives of the City of Krakow broke out on February 6, 2021 in the evening, and was extinguished on February 11 – after nearly 112 hours of action. In the following days, firefighters extinguished the fire. In total, over 800 firefighters, about 100 a day, took part in the activities. The fire was destroyed by two halls built in 2018, in which the city stored nearly 20 kilometers of current files. The third of the modern halls of the archive survived – it was not yet put into use.

The archive stored documents that were created in the City Hall and subordinate units, including: personal files of former municipal workers, former registration forms; Also documents from 72 already liquidated municipal units.