All-clear already given

Closure in Linz city center due to explosion hazard

The emergency services cordoned off part of Fadingerstrasse due to a gas leak (symbolic image).

(Bild: P. Huber)

This immediately brings back memories of the terrible explosion in a housing estate in Ansfelden last summer. This time, however, the gas leak was discovered in time. The emergency services cordoned off the affected area in the center of Linz right next to the Elisabethinen Hospital.

"We cordoned off a large area to prevent people walking past with a cigarette, for example" - because that could have led to an explosion, reports Markus Reitbauer, head of operations at the Linz professional fire department. The Florianis were deployed to Fadingerstraße on Tuesday afternoon because a gas leak had been detected there. Gas was leaking into the cellar of a building, presumably due to a faulty natural gas pipe.

The leak was detected in good time and has already been repaired by Linz AG. The fire department carried out ventilation measures in the affected building, which did not have to be evacuated. No one was injured.

Hospital entrance kept clear
Closing off Fadingerstraße was a challenge for the emergency services, however, as the Elisabethinen Hospital, which was still open on Tuesday, is located in the immediate vicinity of the gas leak. "But we made sure that access to the hospital was possible. We managed that well in consultation with the police," says head of operations Reitbauer.

The roadblock was in place for around two hours. In total, the operation lasted several hours.