Polish Reporter Escapes Death in Warsaw Fire

A Polish investigative journalist who received death threats after writing articles about the secret police narrowly escaped from a mysterious fire Sunday that killed his wife, his newspaper said.

A spokesman at Gazeta Wyborcza, the Solidarity union daily, said Jerzy Jachowicz’s wife was killed and his 15-year-old daughter badly injured when all three leaped from their second-floor apartment to escape the fire.

The spokesman said that Jachowicz, who was in shock, blames arsonists for the fire at his home near Warsaw. But police authorities said they suspect the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

Jachowicz, one of the few investigative journalists in Poland, has written several articles about the Interior Ministry and the secret police. One of his reports was considered instrumental in the disbanding earlier this year of a paramilitary group consisting of former police officers.