The fire that raged in a block of flats in the Ostend Old Town on Monday afternoon led investigators to a large cannabis farm that had been secluded at the neighbour's. The fire led to a hole in the wall of a neighbour’s abode and the discovery of the cannabis farm. A 21-year-old Ostender has been arrested.
A rubbish truck was parked outside the property on the Kaaistraat where the fire had raged the previous day all afternoon Tuesday. The entire building is now uninhabitable. Municipal workers from the technical services department in our premier seaside resort could be seen entering the building and leaving with large armfuls of cannabis plants, which they deposited into the rubbish truck.
‘The fire created a hole in the wall shared with an adjacent abode,’ said Griet Deprest of the West Flanders public prosecutor's office. ‘This is how the cannabis farm came to light. We believe 500 cannabis plants and 250 cuttings are involved.’
A 21-year-old Ostender has been arrested. He is thought to be the occupant of the adjoining abode. He was arraigned before an examining magistrate on Tuesday.
35-year-old jumps onto neighbour's roof to escape blaze
On Monday afternoon fire raged in a flat on the third and highest floor of the block of flats in the Kaaistraat. Four people were injured and had to be taken to hospital.
One of the four is a 35-year-old man, who fled out of the building onto a flat roof. He then jumped onto a neighbour's roof to escape the fire leaping across a sizeable gap between the 2 buildings. He was taken to the Neder-Over-Heembeek burns centre with severe burns.
