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Staff Reporter

PALMA
THREE warehouses in Palma's Calle Aragon, were destroyed by fire in the early hours of yesterday morning. The alarm was raised at 3am by a neighbour and fireman fought for three and a half hours to extinguish the blaze.

A spokesman for the fire brigade said that there had been no danger of the flames spreading to nearby houses, but the neighbours had to endure the smoke for hours.

The source of the fire is still unknown and although arson was suspected at first, it is now believed to have been due to a short circuit as the warehouses were old.

Balearic Government spokesman Joan Flaquer yesterday confirmed that the warehouses belonged to Palma council.
He went on to say that they had recently been transferred to the council by the Balearic Ministry of Education and Culture, which had until January 31 to remove any material and documentation which it was storing in the warehouses, some of which had been affected by the fire.

Flaquer said that the Balearic Ministry of Education and Culture “will give more concrete information as soon as they have it”.
Asked if there could have been negligence in the storing of the material, Flaquer said he considered that it would be “hasty” to talk about this. “As I understand it there wasn't any negligence, but prudence requires that a thorough investigation of what happened should take place before we talk about such things”, he said.

The fire was attended by the Palma Fire Brigade and an Ib-Salut ambulance.