Fire in Lungau

Forest fire kept Lungau fire departments on their toes

60 Lungau firefighters were deployed.

(Bild: Feuerwehr Lungau)

A forest in Mariapfarr (Salzburg) caught fire on Monday afternoon. The fire in an area that is difficult to access at around 1600 meters above sea level took the Lungau fire department several hours to put out. The trigger was a campfire ...

Attentive police officers noticed the fire on a mountain pasture in Mariapfarr at around 4 pm. On checking, the officers came across a local man. The 78-year-old stated that he had been working in the forest. He had become cold in the process. To warm himself, he had made a campfire. However, it got out of control and engulfed a large area.

When the Mariapfarr fire department arrived, it turned out that the forest floor had caught fire on steep, rocky terrain measuring around 20 by 20 meters. The water supply was difficult in the remote forest at around 1600 meters above sea level. The emergency services alerted other fire departments and a tanker shuttle service was set up over a distance of around 3.5 kilometers.

After almost two hours, the fire was under control. A drone and thermal imaging cameras were used to check the slope for hidden pockets of embers. At around 7.30 pm, the fire was finally out. Around 60 firefighters from Mariapfarr, Tamsweg, Mauterndorf, Ramingstein and Unterberg were deployed.