Resident was asleep

Landlord after fire: “Human life comes first”

The kitchen was completely destroyed

(Bild: zVg)

It is only thanks to an attentive landlord that the occupant of a house did not die in a fire. The 38-year-old tenant had fallen asleep while heating fat. In an interview with the "Krone" newspaper, the courageous landlord describes how he experienced the incident.

"He has lived here for five or six years, there have never been any problems," says landlord Hazur D. On Sunday afternoon, however, the 38-year-old tenant had fallen asleep while heating fat on the stove, which reportedly caused the Kronstorf apartment to go up in flames. Only the courage of his landlord saved the 38-year-old Slovakian from certain death by fire.

On site by chance
"I was in the house repairing the hot water boiler in the basement. When my sister-in-law called me to say that there was smoke in the tenant's apartment, I went up there straight away," says the dedicated landlord.

Hot grease and thick smoke
In the apartment, he immediately noticed that hot fat was spraying in all directions in the kitchen and thick smoke was spreading. "I woke him up and asked him if he was mad, what he was doing. Then I took him outside first, because life is more important to me than anything else," says Hazur D. "Then I put out the fire with a fire extinguisher from the stairwell," says Hazur D. However, the hot oil started to burn again only a short time later, until the fire department brought the flames under control again.

Catastrophic condition
"It looks catastrophic in the apartment: the kitchen is burnt out, the hot fat has melted through the laminate flooring, the mortar has fallen from the ceiling and the polystyrene has also burned in the hole where the extractor fan used to be," says the landlord in dismay.

Tenant "a good guy"
The exact damage must now be assessed. This will also determine when the apartment can be occupied again. However, the landlord defends the person who caused the fire: "I don't know anything about alcohol. But the tenant is very good and clean, he always cleans the stairwell and even the windows every two weeks!"

Slight smoke inhalation
Three people were taken to hospital to be checked for smoke inhalation. "I was given medication and a spray, but luckily we were almost unharmed!" It is only thanks to Hazur D. that nobody died in the fire.