A 33-year-old man has been sentenced to four years in prison for starting a fire in an apartment building in central Randers in September 2025.
The man was convicted of qualified arson at the District Court in Randers on September 15, 2026. DR reports that the verdict was announced in a press release from the prosecution service at East Jutland Police.
The fire broke out on the night of September 25, 2025, in a multi-story residential building on Østervold in the center of Randers. 45 residents had to be evacuated from their apartments in the middle of the night, and some were helped out through windows.
According to the prosecution service, several residents were in mortal danger during the fire. No one was seriously injured.
East Jutland Police quickly suspected that the fire had been set deliberately. A review of video surveillance footage led investigators to the 33-year-old, who was arrested the same day and later held in pre-trial custody.
Phone message and technical evidence
During a search of the man’s phone, investigators found a message he had written to a friend. In it, he acknowledged that he was behind the fire, per the police account. Police also said several technical traces pointed to the 33-year-old.
In court, the man admitted causing the fire but denied that it was deliberate arson. He said he had thrown a cigarette into a trash can. The court rejected that explanation and found that he lit a fire and then left the scene without taking further action.
Senior prosecutor Rosa Pape said she was satisfied that the court agreed the case involved qualified arson. She described it as almost miraculous that no one was seriously injured or killed in the fire.
Pape noted that the 33-year-old started an extensive fire in the middle of the night, in a building where many residents were asleep. According to her, anyone who does that must be aware of exposing others to very great danger.
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The 33-year-old will not appeal the sentence, according to his defense attorney, Berit Ernst. She said he is sorry that human lives were put at risk and has been weighed down by guilt over what happened.
Ernst added that her client had looked forward to closing the case, both for his own sake and for everyone else involved. She said the hope was that all parties could now move on.
Qualified arson is one of the more serious offenses in the Danish criminal code, and covers fires set under circumstances that put lives at obvious risk. The conviction concerns a single fire at the Østervold address in Denmark, and no other charges were reported in the case.
