House now uninhabitable

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Eleven fire departments battled the fire in Garsten.(Bild: FF Garsten)

Thick clouds of smoke joined the fog in Garsten (Upper Austria) on Monday: Fire broke out in the wooden extension of a detached house. The flames also spread to the house, which is likely to be temporarily uninhabitable. Eleven fire departments brought the fire under control.

In the early hours of Monday afternoon, a fire broke out in a wooden extension - probably a garage - at a house in Garsten. When the first firefighters arrived, the flames had already spread to the roof area of the detached house. "The first thing we did was protect the residential building," reports Andreas Aschauer, commander of the Garsten fire brigade. "We entered the house and the upper floor with the first breathing apparatus unit."

Eleven fire departments on site
In the end, a total of eleven fire departments battled the flames. The extinguishing work concentrated on protecting the remaining roof truss.

The wooden extension was completely destroyed.(Bild: FF Garsten)

House sustained damage
"The wooden extension is a total loss," says Aschauer. And the adjoining residential building also took a beating: "The house will be temporarily uninhabitable. The windows were broken and there was smoke in the living area."

The good news: there were no injuries, as fortunately no one was inside the building when the fire broke out.

In addition to the fire department, the Red Cross, the police and the crisis intervention team were also deployed. The cause of the fire is still unclear.