Three people awakened

Barn burnt to the ground

The fire broke out in an agricultural outbuilding.(Bild: Kerschbaummayr Werner)

In the early hours of the morning, the sirens were wailing in the Innviertel region. An agricultural outbuilding in Mehrnbach went up in flames, a total of 14 fire departments were deployed there and a level two alert was issued. A grandmother (83) as well as her granddaughter (28) and great-granddaughter (1) were woken up and taken out of the danger zone. The cause of the fire was probably hot ash.

The fire alarm was triggered in Mehrnbach at around 5.53 a.m. on Thursday morning. When the first fire department arrived at the scene, a level two alarm was sounded and further fire departments were alerted. 

No casualties
180 firefighters from a total of 14 fire departments fought a fire that had broken out in an unused building - said to be a former cowshed. They managed to prevent the flames from spreading to the adjacent buildings and the house.

An 83-year-old woman sleeping in the house as well as her 28-year-old granddaughter and her one-year-old daughter were woken up by the fire department and taken out of the danger zone. However, the barn, which was largely made of wood, burned to the ground. As it was empty, neither people nor animals were harmed. 

Ashes disposed of in waste garbage can
The rescue service was on site with a car to support the breathing apparatus wearers. The extinguishing work took several hours. In the afternoon, the scene of the fire was inspected by the district fire investigator and the expert from BVS Upper Austria. No indication of a technical cause for the fire could be found.

In the course of the investigations, it became known that the 83-year-old had disposed of the ashes of the piece goods stove in the waste garbage can the previous evening. According to the police, it can therefore be assumed with a high degree of certainty that the fire was caused by the ash in the residual waste garbage can. The amount of damage was not yet known.