Prague - Hundreds of firemen struggled for hours to put an end to the fire that erupted on Thursday at 7pm in the Industrial Palace at Prague Exhibition Grounds (Výstaviště).
Firemen managed to contain the fire before midnight, by which time one wing of the 1891 art nouveau hall had burnt down, with the total damage estimated around CZK 1 billion.
The blaze was most probably caused by an explosion of an oxygen tank in a dentist room, which was on display in the hall as part of the Pragodent exhibition of dental care, former Výstaviště director Karel Klíma and one of the investigators told Aktálně.cz.
Reconstruction? Too early to tell
Prague City Hall's crisis team had an emergency meeting during the night of the fire.
"From my point of view, the Industrial Palace cannot simply disappear from the map of Prague's cultural sights, but it is way too early to tell whether we will or will not rebuilt the left wing of the palace, and in what architectural style," Prague Mayor Pavel Bém told journalists.
He added that the city will most probably build a replica of the original structure.
