STA, 9 April 2021 - A popular mountain hut situated close to a well-known WWII memorial in the Pohorje forests has been consumed by fire, but firefighters managed to protect a museum collection dedicated to a storied Partisan unit from flames.
Dom na Osankarici (NE) caught fire just after 8pm on Thursday, Branko Hojnik, the head of the local civil rescue service, has told the STA. Some 120 voluntary firefighters managed to put it out, but part of the building collapsed.
However, the firefighters succeeded in protecting the part of the building housing the museum collection of the Pohorje Battalion, and prevented the flames from spreading into the surrounding spruce forest.
It is not known yet what caused the fire and the damage is yet to be assessed but Hojnik said it would be extensive.
He said more than 50,000 litres of water had been used to put the fire out in what was one of major operations recently.
The Maribor Police Department said no one had been injured in the fire, but damage to property was substantial. Crime investigators, joined by forensics are to be deployed to the site today, while police have been doing their inquiries.
While the museum is a property of the Slovenska Bistrica municipality, the hut is held privately. Speaking to the newspaper Večer, the current lessee was devastated, suggesting the chimney could have been what caused the fire.
Aleš Patekar said he put all his savings and property into the hut. "I sold my house and land [...] I assume the fire started because of the chimney that had been giving us problems before."
A popular spot for hikers and cyclists, Dom na Osankarici is where a large crowd gathers every January to honour the memory of the Pohorje Battalion, whose 69 soldiers were killed after being attacked by 2,000-strong Nazi Germany troops on the Osankarica hill in 1943.
The hut is the second mountain refuge to have been annihilated by fire this year after Mozirska Koča on Golte went up in flames in late February. In 2017 the hut on Korošica burnt down and in 2019 the hut on Okrešelj was consumed by fire. They are all located in the north or north-east of the country.
