STORY: Massive fire destroys shopping mall in Warsaw
SHOOTING DATE: May 12, 2024
DATELINE: May 13, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:52
LOCATION: Warsaw
CATEGORY: OTHERS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the burning building
2. various of mall's facade with the smoke mounting from behind
3. various of firefighters approaching the reporters
4. SOUNDBITE 1 (Polish): MARIUSZ FELTYNOWSKI, Commander in chief of Poland's State Fire Services
5. various of two fire units in action
6. SOUNDBITE 2 (Polish): MARIUSZ FELTYNOWSKI, Commander in chief of Poland's State Fire Services
7. various of the firefighters in action
8. various drone shots of the fire

STORYLINE:

Almost 1,400 stores, run by people of 14 nationalities, mostly Vietnamese, were destroyed totally in a massive fire that broke out on Sunday at the Marywilska 44 shopping mall in Warsaw's northern district of Bialoleka.

The fire was spotted early in the morning and spread extremely quickly.

According to Polish fire services, flames might have broken out simultaneously in various locations within the building.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Polish): MARIUSZ FELTYNOWSKI, Commander in chief of Poland's State Fire Services
"The fire alarm from the building's system hit the city fire services at 3:31 a.m. After 11 minutes, when the first two fire units arrived at the site, around two-thirds of the building was already in flames and the fire was spreading fast through the roof with the help from the wind. More units were sent to the site and the extinguishing action was continued under the supervision of the city commander."

At least some of the mall's fire curtains did not work, despite being designed to isolate fires, according to Feltynowski.

SOUNDBITE 2 (Polish): MARIUSZ FELTYNOWSKI, Commander in chief of Poland's State Fire Services
"When we went inside - and it wasn't deep inside, as it was still dangerous there - we saw that some of the fire curtains weren't closed. So while it's still too early to judge, it seems unusual that such a huge area of a building was completely on fire within 11 minutes of the initial report. It's up to the experts to give the final answer but, according to our experience, the fire must have started in a few places simultaneously. And the space was filled with flammable materials like clothes, which naturally helped the flames to spread. But again, let me say that usually 11 minutes is not enough for a fire to cover most of such a big area."

The ruins are now being searched. According to preliminary information from the fire services, nobody was hurt.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Warsaw.
(XHTV)