A Syrian mother died in a Berlin hospital on February 10, more than two weeks after suffering severe injuries in a fire at a Berlin refugee home. Authorities are investigating for a potential arson attack.

On January 26, several German news outlets reported that a fire had broken out in a four-story residential home in northeast Berlin that also houses refugees. Two residents reportedly suffered injuries due to the fire, which broke out in the early evening of January 25, and were taken to a hospital for further treatment. Forty-four residents were reportedly brought to safety.

One of the two hospitalized residents, it now became known, was Yazi Almiah, a Syrian refugee and mother of six. She reportedly died on February 10 in a Berlin hospital from the injuries she sustained from the fire.

Also read: German authorities investigate fatal fire at refugee accommodation

What do we know about the fire?

After the fire was extinguished, an arson squad of the State Office of Criminal Investigation immediately began investigating for serious arson, according to news outlet Tagesspiegel. The investigation has reportedly since been expanded to include the criminal offense of "arson resulting in death".

According to the fire department, the residents of the four-story apartment building were trapped by fire and smoke. Several baby carriages in the stairwell on the first floor were the first to catch fire, according to police.

The 17-year-old son of the Almiah family reportedly said that the door to the courtyard was always open. Only on this evening it is said to have been suddenly closed, Tagesspiegel reported, which made escape from the smoke-filled stairwell considerably more difficult.

The fire investigators are in close exchange with the police state protection (polizeilicher Staatsschutz), according to police.

Also read: 11 injured in fire at asylum seeker center in Germany

Why didn't the case become known sooner?

On February 19, one day before different media first reported on the Syrian woman's death, Berlin-based activist and author Tarek Baé made it public on Twitter, thus giving it wider attention. In his tweets, Baé accused politicians, police and the media of a lack of attention on the case and reacting late.

According to Tagesspiegel, the late reaction of the police was unusual. Although the press office normally issues a separate press release for fatalities, who die days later after the actual incident as a result of an accident, fire or crime, it did not happen this time.

Instead, the press office reacted only ten days after the death, on February 20, with a follow-up statement -- despite numerous journalists reportedly inquired about the death already shortly after the first reports about the death of the 43-year-old on February 18.

In the statement, police said they couldn't provide any information on the reasons for the crime nor the cause of the woman's death, only that "intensive investigations are still being conducted in every direction" and that there are no indications of a possible politically motivated act so far.

How is the Syrian family faring?

The 17-year-old son told the Spiegel news magazine police questioned him and his father for the first time on February 16, so six days after his mother's death and more than three weeks after the fire.

According to the bereaved, the family had been living in the second floor of the apartment building since 2020.

According to Tagesspiegel, Yazi Almiah's husband and six children have had to return to their apartment building after they were temporarily sheltered in a different accommodation for a few days. The walls of the staircase, Tagesspiegel reported, are still charred. Everything reminds them of their deceased mother, the son said.

The family has approached the district office twice to express their wish for a new apartment in vain, according to Tagesspiegel.

Several politicians have called on the responsible authorities to clarify the cause of the fire, among them member of Berlin's House of Representatives Orkan Özdemir, who said it was up to Berlin's Senate Departments of Justice and the Interior to stop speculations.

According to Tagesspiegel, the neighborhood of the refugee accommodation in Berlin's northern Pankow borough is considered a hotspot of the right-wing scene, with right-wing and extreme right-wing stickers, slogans and graffiti appearing again and again.