Around midnight, the alarm came that there was a fire at the ICA store in Spandelstorp outside Karlskrona.

A neighbor in the area had fortunately woken up and seen flames at the store.

- It could have ended badly.

It was awful to wake up from that conversation last night, says store owner Fredrik Svensson.

SVT Nyheter Blekinge meets the witness today, who does not want to stand up for either name or picture for fear of being exposed to something himself.

But he says he was going to sleep, but by chance got up and then got to see how it burned at the store some distance away.

- At first I did not really understand what was happening.

I thought someone was there working, but realized it was unreasonable because it was night.

Then I saw that there were flames and that it was burning, so I called 112 immediately.

I now understand in retrospect that it could have ended badly if I had not seen it, the witness says.

Early evacuation is absolutely crucial

The rescue service was then able to quickly arrive at the scene to extinguish the fire.

It had then burned both at the entrance and at a billboard that was placed on the storefront.

- Early detection of a fire is absolutely decisive for the damage to a building.

If we can be in a place early, we can limit the fire fairly quickly.

We are extremely grateful that the public really calls SOS when you see things like this.

It is very awake so we can praise it, says Christer Lindau at the rescue service Östra Blekinge.

What is your assessment, what could have happened if the witness had not seen the incident and alerted immediately?

- If the fire gets a foothold in the building, then you can talk about total damage.

There will be enormous material damage.

Looking for more witnesses

The police have drawn up a report of attempted aggravated damage by fire.

So far, no one has been arrested for the crime.

- Had the witness not seen this, it could have gone well.

We are now looking for more observations that may have been made in Spandelstorp during the night.

If you have it, you should contact the police, says Magnus Hansson at Blekinge Police.