Firefighters lost their lives in a massive fire in Willach-Land district last night. Just before 3 a.m. on Saturday, the police and fire department of the municipality of Arnoldstein responded to a fire in a commercial building in the Riegersdorf area of the municipality of Arnoldstein. When emergency services arrived on site, a farm building was already fully engulfed in flames. The fire had already spread to the house.
Water scarcity
“The occupants left the home and made their own way to safety before emergency services arrived,” the police report said. Due to the prevailing water shortage and the overloading of the local water network, several feeder lines had to be constructed from the nearby Feistridsbach to support the firefighting operation. Then alerted tank fire engines set up a shuttle service to bring fire water from the towns of Furnitz and Godersdorf. During the morning, more intensive firefighting was carried out in the house using two turntable ladders. Also, this action was taken to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby houses. Due to the strong smoke development, this is only possible using strict respiratory protection.
St. Leonhard/Siebenbrünn city center is very built up and a few meters away from the fire object are other objects and the church. The access road to St Leonhard was closed. A local detour has been put in place. About 150 people from the fire departments of Siebenbrunn, Riegersdorf, Arnoldstein, Furnitz, Kodersdorf, Bochau, Seltzach-Agoritzach, Thorl-Mächlern, Gershdorf-Wertsach were involved in the main work of the fire department and the Bochach fire department. There is no word yet on the cause of the fire and an investigation will begin once the fire is extinguished.
