Man Douses House with Petrol and Sets It on Fire While a Woman and Two Children Were Inside, Karlovy Vary Region

On the evening of Monday, September 7, a shocking incident took place in a small village in the Karlovy Vary Region: a man poured petrol over a house he had once shared with his wife and set it alight. At the time of the arson, a woman who currently rents the property was inside, along with two children.

According to police, the man first stopped at a petrol station in Karlovy Vary, where he filled a canister with fuel, before heading to his former family home — even though neither he nor his wife had lived there for a long time. He made his way through the garden, smashed the glass panel of the terrace door, and poured the fuel inside through the opening.

“Even the fact that a 28-year-old woman who now rents the house was watching him the entire time did not stop him. Two children were also in the house with her,” said police spokesman Jan Bílek.

The woman shouted at the man and tried to talk him out of it, but he simply demanded that everyone leave the house at once, then set the spilled petrol on fire. Fortunately, everyone managed to get outside in time, and no one was hurt.

He turned himself in to police

Neighbours heard the sound of breaking glass followed by shouting, and it was they who began putting out the fire. The man himself got into his car after the arson and drove straight to the police station, where he confessed to what he had done.

A breath test revealed the man had 1.73 per mille of alcohol in his blood. It also emerged that he was currently banned from driving. Police detained him and launched criminal proceedings.

He has been charged with damaging another person’s property, endangering others while intoxicated, and evading an official driving ban. Preliminary estimates put the fire damage at over one million crowns, Bílek added. If found guilty, he faces up to three years in prison.

Source: novinky.cz