Bonn - It is hell. Ceilings, walls, Opatija is a pitch black. Tables, chairs charred. Even the sauce bottles on the appetizer buffet is melted. Shards of glass lie everywhere.
Arson destroyed on Friday, the popular restaurant on the street brothers - and brought Warden Anica Barlovic (58) to the edge of despair ...
At 6 passersby raised the alarm clock. Flames ate their way through the "Opatija". On the windows of the floors above it, the neighbors were standing, shouting for help.
Major operation! The firemen had the fire under control quickly, however, rescued six people on the turntable ladder and through the stairwell. Sigh of relief - for "Opatija" boss Anica Barlovic But the nightmare was going on in earnest.
Her eyes are red cried when she shows what has caused the fire. The once cozy restaurant is as black as hell, it smells of stale smoke. "You can steal what you want, but do not put everything on fire," she says softly. "I have lived only for" Opatija ", always toiled. The restaurant was my one and only ... "
Arson! Of these, the detective goes out. The alleged perpetrator: a burglar. Anica Barlovic points to a window in the gaping hole. "There was a brick reingeworfen from the construction site next door," she explains. So the fire devil came into the bar.
The stranger just raided the restaurant, then went into the basement. There, he entered the door, stole whiskey and cognac bottles. More is not lacking at first glance. The prey was too silly, he laid out of anger over the fire? The investigations are in full swing. The offender had also tried to break into the pizzeria next door.
In front of the burned-out "Opatija" ever stop again regulars. As Elsie L. (80). "How much misery you have to endure yet?" She asks, bewildered and takes Anica Barlovic in the arm.
The "Opatija" boss with their strength at the end. Besides working in the restaurant she maintains her husband Marko. The 77-year-old suffered brain hemorrhage eight. Nevertheless, she says, he wanted to see the burned-out restaurant.
A terrible sight - not the first that the pair (it opened the "Opatija" had to endure 1973). At the first site (Peace) was burning a bar obendrüber: Your Local ran full of firewater. The "Opatija" moved to the Friedrichstrasse, where it burned itself mid-May 2001 () technical defect. Now the bad luck went with them into the Brüdergasse ...
