Two fire brigades in action

Fire in Villach: Resident needed oxygen

The flames did not seem to have destroyed too much, but the soot is currently making it impossible to live there.(Bild: Hauptfeuerwache Villach feuerwehr-villach.at)

The fire departments provided the 92-year-old resident, who had soot on her face and hands, with oxygen before tackling the fire in Villach.

Heavy smoke in an apartment on the third floor of an apartment building in the center of Villach: Shortly before 6:30 p.m., the police alerted the Villach fire control center, and the main fire station and the Perau fire department were deployed.

A fire had broken out in the front room of the apartment, which was almost extinguished when the professionals arrived. 

"The occupant was taken out of the smoke-filled apartment by the first firefighters and the police and immediately given first aid with the oxygen we had brought with us," reports incident commander Alexander Scharf, platoon commander of the Villach main fire station.

Meanwhile, a breathing apparatus unit from the main fire station was able to quickly bring the situation in the apartment under control and only had to carry out extinguishing work. "Fortunately, the fire had not yet spread to other parts of the apartment," says Scharf. 

A thermal imaging camera was used to check the scene of the fire for embers. The apartment was blown smoke-free with an electric high-performance fan.

The fire was confined to the outbreak area, but the apartment is currently uninhabitable due to the massive amounts of smoke.

The tenant was taken to Villach LKH by the Red Cross due to suspected smoke inhalation. No other residents or animals were harmed and did not have to be evacuated.

According to the police, the soot was caused by burnt, incorrectly stored grave candles. As a result, adjacent objects began to glow, which caused the soot.