Trigger in the kitchen

Municipal office caught fire after mayor left

There was a fire in the Hinzenbach municipal office on Saturday.(Bild: laumat)

An event with around 100 guests took place in the Hinzenbach municipal office on Saturday. After the last person, the mayor, left the building, a fire broke out. It was probably caused by a catering team cleaning up the kitchen. And in Reichersberg there was a fire in a shooting cellar.

Local residents became aware of the fire at around 2.45 pm due to smoke rising from the Hinzenbach municipal office. The building was still fully occupied with around 100 event guests and only a quarter of an hour before the smoke began to develop, the head of the village was the last person to leave the municipal office - at this point there was no sign of the fire.

The fire started in the kitchen on the second floor and several rooms on the same floor were badly damaged, according to the police. 35 firefighters were able to extinguish the flames and call "fire out" at around 3.25 pm. No one was injured.

An investigation by the fire investigators revealed that the switch button on a ceramic hob had probably been accidentally pressed when putting things together in the kitchen. The coffee machine placed on it caught fire. The kitchen had previously been used by a catering company to cater for event guests.

Fire caused by gunpowder
The Florianis had to respond to a fire in Reichersberg earlier that morning. At 8 a.m., a sport shooting competition with 34 participants began there, held in a shooting cellar. According to police information, two marksmen and a range supervisor were in the cellar when the fire broke out. When one of the shooters wanted to fire his third shot, the unburned gunpowder may have ignited - causing the room to catch fire.

The entire building had to be evacuated due to the heavy smoke development. Ten fire departments and around 140 firefighters arrived, and the extinguishing work was successfully completed around an hour later. Nobody was injured in this operation either.