Major fire department operation

House fire: Styrian (54) wanted to fight hornets

While trying to burn down a hornet's nest with a gas canister burner, a 54-year-old man in Riegersburg started a house fire on Sunday morning. The entire roof truss burned down - the property damage is enormous, although no one was injured.

The emergency services received the alarm at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning: The roof truss of a residential building in Riegersburg in south-eastern Styria had caught fire.

Attempt to burn it down with a gas burner went wrong
The 54-year-old homeowner had tried to burn down a hornet's nest with a gas canister burner. But the action went wrong - because suddenly the roof was on fire. Together with neighbors, he tried to extinguish the fire with a fire extinguisher and water, but to no avail.

When the emergency services (Feldbach, Kornberg-Bergl, Schützing, Lödersdorf, Riegersburg, Weinberg a.d.R., Johnsdorf-Brunn, Hatzendorf and St. Stefan i.R., police, Red Cross, crisis intervention team) arrived, a full fire had already broken out. 15 vehicles and 80 firefighters battled the flames.

Entire upper floor destroyed
After the extinguishing work was completed, however, a sad picture emerged: the entire upper floor had been destroyed. There was considerable damage to property of an as yet unknown amount - but no people were injured.