Battle for extinguishing water

Major alarm: barn fire threatened residential building

The shed was completely burnt out, but the residential building remained intact.(Bild: FF Weitra)

Highest fire alarm level in Abschlag in the Waldviertel municipality of Bad Großpertholz. A fire broke out in a large barn there on Saturday afternoon and threatened to spread to the farm building.

Initially, the second-highest alert level was declared for the fire in Abschlag in the district of Gmünd. However, as the extinguishing water supply there proved to be extremely difficult, the level was then raised to "B4". And another six portable pumps were called out to create a one and a half kilometer long extinguishing water pipeline to the nearest pond, reports the Großpertholz fire department. 

A one and a half kilometer long pipeline had to be laid to supply extinguishing water.(Bild: FF Weitra)

Extinguishing work soon took effect
A total of 20 fire departments with 178 firefighters were alerted. The firefighters on site were soon able to access the 59,000-liter extinguishing water tank and a private pool to counteract the water shortage. The firefighters were able to bring the flames under control sooner than expected and protect the residential building. No one was injured. The fire was finally put out at around 4 pm.