Fear of arsonists

Community fears third series of bandit fires

This large pile of wood in Feldkirchen/D. was set alight four years ago.

(Bild: Kerschbaummayr Werner)

A barn set on fire in the middle of the village and previous fires in the forest - in Feldkirchen an der Donau (Upper Austria) there is great concern about a series of arsonists. The excitement in the community has been growing over the past few days, as there was another fire in a farm outbuilding on Monday night.

"Hopefully this isn't the start of a new series" - on Sunday morning, arson in the middle of Feldkirchen/D. was the talk of the town. On Saturday night, an old wooden barn of a former butcher's shop burned down and the fire was only just prevented from spreading to the uninhabited main building.

Investigations point to this
Because a woodpile had burned a few days earlier in the neighboring community of Goldwörth - the flames were blue here, so an accelerant had been used - and a hollow tree had gone up in flames at the end of April in the nearby village of Höflein (Ottensheim district), everyone suspected an arsonist. Police investigations also point to this.

The sirens were also blaring in Goldwörth on Monday night. Ten fire departments were called out to a fire. Fortunately, the farmhouse was not on fire, as initially feared. However, an outbuilding burned to the ground. Two cars were also destroyed.

Charges against young woman dropped
There had been several fires in Feldkirchen three years ago: Five fires in hedges and woodpiles and garden sheds, four of them started with certainty, had caused concern. The suspicions against a young woman were not substantiated and the charges were dropped.

Observations of suspects
A series of fires in the Danube community that lasted several weeks in 2017 also remained unsolved. At that time, elephant grass fields and hedges, including those directly adjacent to houses, had gone up in flames - always at weekends. There were also observations of suspects at the time, but the perpetrator remained unidentified.