PV panels on the building

Roof of barn with 60 cattle was on fire

Nine fire departments were alerted to Niederkappel (Upper Austria) on Thursday afternoon: The roof truss of a barn - on which photovoltaic modules had previously been put into operation - was on fire. There were around 100 cattle in the building when the fire broke out - they were lucky.

"We could see that the roof truss was on fire as soon as we drove up," Jakob Pumberger, head of operations for the Niederkappel fire department, told the Krone newspaper. Pumberger and his Floriani were alerted at around 3 p.m. on Thursday and immediately called in reinforcements. A total of nine fire departments were deployed to bring the fire in a stable building under control.

According to Pumberger, the fire departments succeeded: "Fortunately, there were no injuries. We were also able to save the house next door."

Animals remained in the barn
According to the police, there were around 100 cattle in the barn; previously there had been talk of around 60 animals. "We ventilated the barn and were able to leave the animals in the barn," said the incident commander. The cattle were in good health.

A 32-year-old man from the Rohrbach district was operating a photovoltaic system on the roof of the agricultural building before the fire broke out. The exact cause of the fire is still unclear, however, and the firefighting operation was still underway on Thursday evening.