Before the fire:
Posted on 03/13/2012 3:55:35 AM PDT by iowamark
Two Slovak children were suspected of burning down a large gothic castle in eastern Slovakia when their experimentation with smoking went wrong, police said on Sunday.
Police were investigating two boys on suspicion that they set grass at the foot of the Krasna Horka castle on fire on Saturday when they tried to light up cigarettes...
"A unit sent to the site found that two local boys aged 11 and 12 were trying to light up a cigarette and because of careless use of safety matches, they set grass at the castle hill on fire," Mesarova said.
The castle subsequently caught fire and emergency services deployed 84 firefighters to the scene.
The Slovak National Museum wrote on its Facebook page that damage to the castle was extensive but about 90 percent of historical collections were saved, including contemporary photographs of furnished castle premises from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, oil paintings and various ornaments.
"The castle's roof burned down completely, as well as the new exhibition in the gothic palace and the bell tower. Three bells melted," the museum said.
The castle, near the UNESCO-protected Domica Cave, dates back to the early 14th century.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Before the fire:
Oh no, my castle!
Where am I going to live!
Well, did they get the cigarette lighted or not?
A low-laying grass fire was gusted in the air thirty plus feet to catch a wooden roof on fire?
No normal kid would try to light a match in a wind storm.
Darn those safety matches! Sue the manufacturer!
If a simple grass fire could burn the whole thing down, it would've been useless as a fortress.
Perhaps there is more to this story.
See my tagline—today it hits the mark!
Dude, they're Slovaks, they could light a cigarette under water if they wanted to.
You are so right.
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