Completely burnt out

Mercedes was on fire in the middle of the road

Despite the fire outside, the emergency services had to extinguish the fire using breathing apparatus and a rapid intervention unit.(Bild: zVg)

The driver of a Mercedes experienced heated scenes on Monday afternoon on Altmannsdorfer Straße in Vienna: his car was engulfed by flames - which also threatened to spread to an adjacent residential building. The professional fire department was able to prevent the worst. 

Dramatic scenes on Altmannsdorfer Straße: as a video made available to "Krone" shows, a car seems to have burst into flames in the middle of the street. After the driver had steered his burning vehicle onto the sidewalk, he left it. The burnt-out car was probably an older Mercedes. It is not yet clear whether this was the reason why the car caught fire.

Despite the fire being outside, the emergency services had to extinguish the fire using breathing apparatus and a rapid intervention unit.(Bild: zVg)

Fire department had to deploy with breathing protection
In any case, the Vienna professional fire department deployed to Altmannsdorfer Straße with a total of eleven men shortly before 5 p.m. on Monday afternoon. At that time, the car was already fully engulfed in flames. As confirmed by Christian Feiler, Chief Fire Officer of the Vienna Professional Fire Brigade, the firefighters had to extinguish the fire outside using breathing apparatus and a rapid intervention unit. The operation lasted around an hour.

Although the fire was outside, we extinguished the fire under breathing protection with a rapid intervention unit.

Oberbrandrat Christian Feiler, Berufsfeuerwehr Wien

The house façade was very hot
The façade of the adjacent house was also checked with a thermal imaging camera. As the wall was very hot, it was cooled down and the adjacent apartments were checked. What was left of the car was subsequently towed away. The driver of the Mercedes was probably not injured in the inferno.