<div>Part of a burning building in Zlín has collapsed, and it is threatened that it will continue to crumble.</div>

Currently, more than 40 fire units are intervening on-site, which is about 300 responding firefighters. Due to the fire, the building has partially collapsed, which complicates the intervention significantly. We are conducting firefighting operations using a police helicopter with a bambi bucket, which drops water directly onto the building. We have repositioned the equipment to a greater distance because there is a risk of further parts of the building collapsing," said Řezníček. He did not want to estimate how long the firefighters' intervention would last.

The police estimated the damage to the footwear stored in the burning building at 60 to 80 million crowns. Additional damage will be incurred to the building and its equipment, police spokesperson Monika Kozumplíková told ČTK today after noon. The owner and founder of the company, Václav Staněk, told ČTK that there were about 75,000 pairs of footwear, clothing, and accessories from the brands Vasky and Botas in the warehouse, with a retail value of 150 to 180 million crowns. The production is located elsewhere. According to him, the company is insured. This year the company celebrated its tenth anniversary since its founding, and last year's turnover was around 300 million crowns.

According to the police, the fire in the footwear warehouse started today before 8:30 AM. The fire gradually spread to other floors of the building and to the roof. It is a building that was constructed in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a central warehouse for footwear. Firefighters, along with police officers, evacuated about a hundred people from the ninth floor, where the fire presumably started. Later, people were also evacuated from other buildings in the vicinity.

Firefighters are using aerial equipment to extinguish the fire. The bambi bucket, from which the helicopter crew releases water onto the fire scene, has a volume of 900 liters. The cause of the fire will be investigated by police officers in conjunction with fire investigators. Firefighters recommended that residents within a kilometer radius of the burning building refrain from ventilating. According to city representatives, a chemical laboratory was dispatched to the scene to measure the levels of harmful substances in the air.