Kindergarten in Oslo engulfed in flames: Arson suspected

The mother says that the five-year-old girl was scared when she said the flames were consuming the Karlstua kindergarten in Oslo.

– She is actually very happy in her nursery, her mother Noshila Riaz tells VG.

Riaz and daughter Madiha Ejaz (5) have a short journey to Karlstua kindergarten. Only two minutes to walk.

– We saw the flames.

From the window at home, they could see the fire growing bigger.

– She witnessed it, so she cried a little. She was both afraid that the nursery was on fire and that the fire would come here, says the mother.

May be ignited

The fire service moved out on Saturday evening with large resources to the kindergarten in Haugerud. For several hours, they had no control over the fire, and it may end with a controlled burn down of the entire nursery.

The police are now working on a hypothesis that the fire was arson.

– We have some information that a quarter of an hour before the fire there were young people near the building, on the subway side of the kindergarten. We are working to find out who this could be, and are going through cameras to look for this, said Arve Røtterud, incident leader in the Oslo police district, to VG on Saturday evening.

– Looks like ruins

While the fire crews and the other emergency services have been working hard throughout the evening, Riaz has tried to comfort his daughter.

– We have told her that she will be allowed to go to kindergarten again, but we are excited to see how things look tomorrow.

– Right now it looks like ruins, continues the mother.

She says they have received a message from the nursery informing them about the fire and that they are working to find a solution.

Excited for tomorrow

– It will be closed on Monday, they are also working on an alternative on Tuesday. I expect them to relocate the children, continues Riaz.

She says they have been very happy to have a short distance to the nursery school. It is not certain that they will have that in the future.

– It all depends on where they are going. We have been lucky and had a 2 minute walk away, but now we may have to use the car. We just have to follow along, says Riaz.

On Monday morning, there will be a home office at Riaz so that she can be at home with Mediha, but she knows that her daughter would most like to meet the other friends at the nursery school.

– It will be a down time for her, she thinks kindergarten is fun. In any case, she doesn’t think it’s fun to just be at home with mum, says Riaz