Slovakia: Three children burn to death in Romani settlement

Three children died around in the early morning hours of Sunday in the Romani settlement in the municipality of Lomnička (Stará Ľubovňa district) in eastern Slovakia. A two-year-old boy, four-year-old boy and five-year-old girl tragically burned to death.

Their mother managed to save two of their other siblings from the dwelling after it caught fire. As the mother told the JOJ television station, the family was warming themselves using candles in the bitter cold.

The mother says she fell asleep and did not wake up until the room was ablaze. Part of the roof collapsed in the room where the children were sleeping.

Their mother managed to drag her oldest and youngest children from the fire. Unfortunately, suspicions that the other three children remained inside were later confirmed.

After firefighters put out the blaze and searched the ruins they found the burned torsos of three children who could no longer be identified. An expert group is now investigating how exactly the blaze began; neighbors have alleged the mother was not in the home at the time of the tragedy.

"A state of emergency has been announced in Lomnička as of today. I have visited the scene of the tragedy, spoken with the mayor, with the director of the Labor Office, with the district head, and with representatives of the civil defense. Clothing and food will be arranged for the families. Charity aid and clothing are already at the scene. By announcing a state of emergency, they are entitled to food and substitute housing. The victims have decided to move in with their other family members temporarily. In the near future the municipality will provide container accommodation for them, and during the state of emergency the costs for the accommodation will be covered by the Interior Ministry. I have called on the mayor to find a permanent solution for this family, not just a temporary one. We offered the mayor the option of the municipality joining our rental apartments program," Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for the Romani Community Peter Pollák posted to his Facebook profile.

A similar case occurred at the end of last year in the Mašličkovo settlement near the Luník IX housing estate in Košice when, on the Friday before the New Year, a six-month-old boy burned to death in a temporary dwelling. Two days later another family in that settlement found their four-month-old boy dead in the morning.

Lomnička was also the scene of a similar tragedy in the spring of 2012, when a mother and four children, one of whom was less than one week old, died in a fire. Four years ago a woman and two children also burned to death on New Year’s Eve in the eastern Slovakian settlement in the municipality of Huncovce.