Fire at night

Automatically saved draft

Acting courageously: Patrick Lechner (left) and Christian Haberl

(Bild: Einsatzdoku)

Dramatic scenes in the Lower Austrian district of Neunkirchen: A house was on fire in the middle of the night while the residents were still asleep. Two firefighters became lifesavers.

Smoke from the roof of a house in Grottendorf near Feistritz am Wechsel in the district of Neunkirchen was noticed by a newspaper deliverer at around 3.30 a.m. on Thursday night - he immediately called the emergency services. In addition to the local fire department, the firefighters from Kirchberg and Aspang were also alerted. Patrick Lechner from Operations Documentation, who is himself a member of the Edlitz fire department, also rushed to the scene.

Two first responders at the scene
Together with Christian Haberl from the Aspang road maintenance department, also a firefighter in Edlitz, he was the first to arrive at the affected house. "It was obviously an attic fire. However, it was unclear whether there were still people in the house," reports Lechner.

The smoke at the scene was so thick that we couldn't immediately tell which house it was at first.

Patrick Lechner, Ersthelfer

Through the window into the house
The two first responders therefore banged on the front door to draw attention to themselves: "As there was no response, we smashed a window pane." While Haberl subsequently instructed the first fire engines to arrive, Lechner climbed into the house through the window and made himself loudly heard.

Residents awakened
And indeed: a short time later, the two owners stood sleepily in front of him. They were shocked to discover that the upper part of their house was already on fire. Lechner got them outside as quickly as possible. Thanks to the courageous intervention of Haberl and Lechner, they escaped with a scare.

The firefighters had to open the roof

(Bild: Einsatzdoku)

Enormous heat, confined spaces
The further extinguishing work proved difficult due to the enormous heat development and because the upper floor was only accessible through a narrow corridor. The firefighters had to partially open the roof in order to reach all the sources of the fire. Three hours later, the fire was under control.