The fire is believed to have caught hold at 2 a.m. and quickly spread from one hall to another. According to initial reports, 99 workers were safely evacuated before fire crews arrived.
Fifty fire engines are now on the scene but are struggling to control the inferno. Spokesman Hubert Ciepły said: “As a result of the fire, the roof of the hall where the fire first broke out has collapsed. Unfortunately, the fire is repading and a second hall has now been engulfed in flames - we are now defending the third hall so that the fire does not spread further.”
The weather and high temperatures, Ciepły added, have exacerbated the situation.
With firefighters struggling to control the blaze, more crews have been called from Silesia as well as the Małopolska region.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, as too is its exact starting point.
“We hope to locate the source of the first soon,” said Ciepły, “but right now the main goal is to defend the third hall which is nearby. At the moment the situation is dynamic.”
This year has seen a string of high-profile arson attacks across the continent, with Germany, UK and the Baltic States all reporting incidents linked to the Kremlin. Poland, too, has been impacted. In May, Warsaw’s largest retail center was left devastated after a suspicious fire tore through it.
According to Western intelligence sources, the spate of arson attacks are part of a coordinated strategy to spread confusion and panic and are part of the Kremlin’s hybrid war on the West.
