Alone at home

Children managed to escape from burning house

Two fire departments were involved in the fire.(Bild: Manfred Fesl)

That was a close call: at around 4 a.m. on Friday, the façade of a house in Jeging (Upper Austria) went up in flames. There were two children (11, 15) in the building at the time, who were home alone and managed to save themselves just in time. The mother arrived later.

At 4.07 a.m. the sirens sounded in Jeging. Two fire departments were alerted to a fire, but the information was so unclear that the firefighters first went to the "wrong" house. "The residents were blindsided when the fire department suddenly rang the bell at 4 a.m.," says Markus Wiesauer, commander of the Jeging fire brigade.

Heavy smoke development
However, the situation was quickly resolved and by the time the 50 or so firefighters arrived at the site, the fire had already spread to part of the façade and the wooden balcony. "There was also a cellar shaft in flames. The smoke quickly spread through the broken cellar window, not only into the burning house, but also into the two adjacent buildings via a shaft," Wiesauer continues.

When we arrived at the scene of the fire, the children were already coming towards us.

Markus Wiesauer, Kommandant der FF Jeging

Address caused confusion
A 15-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl were reportedly home alone in the building. They were rung out by a neighbor who had noticed the fire and were able to escape outside in time. "When we arrived, the children were already coming towards us. One of our members immediately took them to the neighbors, who continued to look after them until the emergency services and police arrived. They also went to the wrong address first." The mother was not at home when the fire broke out. She only arrived at the scene of the fire a short time later.

Neighbor collapsed
Beforehand, the residents of the neighboring buildings had already tried to contain the fire as best they could with fire extinguishers. After two hours, the fire was declared "out". The two children were taken to hospital with suspected smoke inhalation. A neighbor is said to have suffered a circulatory collapse due to the excitement and also required medical treatment.