Local inspection

Basement set on fire: “There are always strangers in the house”

The scene of the fire in the basement of the apartment building

(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

"There are always strangers in our house", says a resident after a fire broke out in the basement of an apartment building in the center of Linz at the weekend. The police suspect that homeless people were trying to warm themselves with fire. The tenants feel helpless because even locks don't work. A local inspection.

"There are always strangers in our house. They sit on the steps down to the cellar, smoke, drink. I've often said to them, what are you doing there? But they don't care." Afghan Nazir S. lives with his parents and nine siblings in the apartment building at Südtiroler Straße 26, where there was a dangerous cellar fire at the weekend.