Animals alone in the house

All help came too late for cats in fire

Flames raged on the upper floor of the apartment building.(Bild: DOKU-NÖ)

A fire broke out in a house in Mitterreith in the Zwettl district while the owners were away. Only the family's cats were in the rooms - but the emergency services were unable to save the two animals.

The owner of the house had heated up the all-burner stove on the upper floor on Sunday morning before leaving the house with his wife and parents around midday. A short time later, a guest in the neighboring pub noticed smoke rising from the building - the fire department was alerted.

The upper floor was ablaze 
When the fire crews arrived at the scene, the upper floor of the house was already ablaze. While firefighters immediately began extinguishing the fire from the outside, firefighters used a cherry picker to open the roof cladding of the building so that they could also fight the fire from above. Firefighters were soon able to reach the source of the fire in the living area while wearing heavy breathing protection.

Resuscitation of the cats attempted
But for two cats belonging to the owners, who had been in the burning building, all help came too late. Although the firefighters attempted resuscitation with oxygen, they were unable to save the two felines. No people were injured in the fire. A total of 90 members of eight fire departments from the region were deployed.