14 alarms in June

Operation record for hard-working Pfarrwerfen fire department

(Bild: Freiwillige Feuerwehr Pfarrwerfen)

Pfarrwerfen's volunteer firefighters have already been called out 14 times in the month of June alone! This is a record-breaking number compared to previous years. 

Bus accident in the A10 tunnel, fallen trees on the country road, flooding, suspected chlorine gas leak - the month of June has been a busy one for the Pfarrwerfen volunteer fire department. In the past eleven days alone, the emergency services from the small community were called out 14 times!

"At the weekend, it would have been my turn to cook twice," says Stefan Hafner. "Both times, my wife took over and I went to work." Hafner is one of 68 members of the Pfarrwerfen fire department. They were in demand all last weekend due to the severe weather. Families and employers often need a lot of understanding for volunteer work.

There were nine deployments during the storms at the weekend alone.

(Bild: Freiwillige Feuerwehr Pfarrwerfen)

At the beginning of June, Stefan Grall took in the poodle of an injured vacationing couple in the Reittunnel accident.

(Bild: Freiwillige Feuerwehr)

Three consecutive days in action
Around 30 kilometers of the Tauern freeway are also part of the operation area. Together with their colleagues from Werfen and Golling, the Pfarrwerfen team is in demand when there is a crash at the tunnel construction site on the A10. At the beginning of June, the men of local commander Peter Buchsteiner had to deploy to the Tauernautobahn on three consecutive days. Accidents involving a coach, a caravan and a car resulted in numerous injuries.

Similar to the Pfarrwerfen team, who only had two call-outs in June last year, others in the province also experienced similar incidents. So far in June, the fire departments have responded to 361 incidents, compared to 424 in June 2023.