Brands - Straw balls burn - arson suspected
In the Heiligenstadt district of Mengelrode, six straw bales went up in flames in the night. The police suspect arson. "Something like that doesn't burn on its own," said a fire department employee when asked. He ruled out a weather-related cause, such as a lightning strike.
The straw bales were burning under a power line. Therefore, the local energy supplier was called in. No one was injured. The fire department extinguished the fire slowly. Beforehand, MDR had reported.
The arson suspicion led the Brand Foundation to offer a reward for information leading to the culprit. The Thuringia police are actively investigating, as the brand 'Mengelrode' could be negatively impacted by this incident. The remnants of the straw balls were later found to have traces of an accelerant, strengthening the arson hypothesis.
