Everything destroyed

Nocturnal inferno of flames on a farm

Numerous fire brigades were deployed.

(Bild: FF Köttmannsdorf)

Shortly after midnight on Thursday, the sirens were wailing in the Rosental valley in Carinthia. A farm building on a farm in Köttmannsdorf had caught fire. The firefighting operation lasted several hours.

It is 0.45 a.m. when the regional alarm and warning center receives the emergency call: fire in a farm building in Köttmannsdorf. The sirens immediately sound in the surrounding communities. Numerous firefighters are woken from their sleep and rush to their fire stations. 

When the fire brigades arrive, the building is already fully engulfed in flames.

(Bild: FF Köttmannsdorf)

And when the first fire department arrives at the property in the small village of St. Magarethen, the agricultural building is already fully engulfed in flames. "The firefighting was started immediately with several breathing apparatus teams on all sides of the building," said the Köttmannsdorf volunteer fire department, which fought the fire with 160 men together with the Ferlach, Kirschentheuer, Maria Rain, Wellersdorf, Wurdach and Stein/Viktring fire brigades.

The rapid and joint extinguishing work prevented the fire from spreading to the nearby residential building.

Freiwillige Feuerwehr Köttmannsdorf

Farm building completely destroyed
But there was no saving the farm building - it was destroyed by the flames. Numerous pieces of agricultural equipment were also destroyed in the night-time inferno.

No one was injured in the fire. The exact cause of the fire has not yet been determined; fire investigators are now looking for the cause. It was not until 5 a.m. that the firefighters were able to call "fire out".