Debate, Hamar | He gets another chance

Not much has happened on the fire site since the fire ruins were demolished and the ground levelled.

It is still the good, old fire wall with the black imprint that forms the facade.

The wall that might have saved the Astoria neighborhood that January night back in 2022.

If it hadn’t been there, the emergency manager from the fire service said in court, there would probably have been a car park today where the hotel is still located.

Yep, you read that right. 2022.

More than two years have passed since the heat shone over the city center roofs, and blue lights mingled sap in the winter night, while water colored gray by soot flowed in millions of liters into the sad remains of the city’s oldest buildings.

A man is in custody who has been sentenced to detention for causing – among other things – one of the most dramatic city center fires in the city’s history.

Now he wants to be a free man.

He gets another chance.

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Things take time – especially now

It is not exactly happy things that characterize the news in the construction and housing industry these days.

Here in Hamar, we have been rather brutally reminded of that, through the breakdown of the housing giant Boligpartner.

Demand and purchasing power have been washed overboard with the interest rate water, and both developers and buyers are making the fences heavy, where they sit and wait for better times.

There will be new construction in Grønnegata, little by little.

But we will probably round both the three and maybe four-year mark for that fire before things happen down there, at least as things are now.

There is regulatory work that takes place between the plot owner and the municipality during the day, and as this work is described, it is a long-term project.

You can read more about this here:

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Many battles to be fought

Plans, regulations, financing and construction.

There are many battles to be fought before the fire plot in Grønnegata reaches a new height above sea level.

Kjemper also makes the man who has been sentenced to detention for setting fire to the building.

He has every right to do so, of course; something else would just be missing.

And it’s no wonder he’s fighting, because where he sits now – if that sentence were to stand – it’s not a given that he’ll be released back into society anytime soon.

Half a year has almost passed since the court was seated a couple of hundred meters from where houses were reduced to ashes that January evening.

In January, the judgment came from the Østre Innlandet district court.

Seven years and six months in custody, with a minimum term of five years.

Custody is a more severe response than a fixed-term prison sentence. It is the strictest reaction we have in Norway, and the consequence of it is that – in the very extreme – you risk being sentenced to life in custody, if the courts repeatedly come to the conclusion that you are not fit for release.

It is therefore not surprising that a remand prisoner who denies guilt continues to fight.

Over the summer holidays there will be another match.

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Takes almost a month

In August, it is ready for the second round in the fire case.

On 20 August, the court will sit in the Eidsivating Court of Appeal, and the stage is set for a new trial of the case, which ended with a custodial sentence in the first instance.

For almost a month, the case will be illuminated again, with explanations and technical evidence.

Last winter, the district court concluded that it was proven that the defendant lit the fire with bare fire in at least two places – including in a sofa in the living room which was in the corner facing Vangsvegen.

The court ruled out that there could be other reasons for the fire than that it was so-called intentionally set, i.e. on purpose. The court held that it could not be anyone other than the defendant who had lit the fire.

From what we understand, it is essentially the same evidence that will now be reassessed.

But there will be new eyes and new ears.

Until September 13, the 40-year-old will have had plenty of time to explain himself again, and then it will be up to the Court of Appeal with its professional and lay judges to finally decide the question of guilt.

Because that will very likely be decided in the Court of Appeal this autumn.

There is also reason to remember that it was not just the Grønnegata fire alone that led to the man’s detention.

• He was convicted of starting a fire in a basement apartment he rented in Hamar in 2019. The court is aware that the fire could easily have led to the loss of human life, as it was ignited at night while several people were sleeping in the house.
• He was also sentenced for setting fire to a home in Ridabu in 2020, as well as for setting fire to a caravan in Rena in 2022.

Otherwise, you just have to wait

There is no common thread between the construction case and the court case.

There are two processes that follow their own paths.

This race will be settled in court long before there is any new building in Grønnegata.

It’s just a matter of waiting.

And, if nothing else, send that brick wall a thank you when you occasionally pass what could have been a much larger parking lot than it ended up being.