Loud meowing

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The kitchen was completely burnt out.

(Bild: ff-badischl.at)

The loud meowing of his cat may have saved the life of a man in Bad Ischl (Upper Austria). A fire broke out in the kitchen on Friday morning, but the man was still fast asleep at the time. He was woken up in time by his cat and started to extinguish the fire himself.

A fire broke out in the kitchen of the house for unknown reasons. The occupant was still asleep and was unaware of any of this. "Once again, it shows how important smoke alarms are in residential buildings," says incident commander Hannes Stibl from the Bad Ischl main fire station. But there were two cats in the house, one of which, fortunately for the resident, sounded the alarm loudly.

Resident can extinguish fire
The homeowner reacted with presence of mind and began to fight the fire using the fire extinguishers available. A neighbor living next door, who was just about to have his coffee, also rushed to help. The emergency services were called immediately.

A cat became a lifesaver.

(Bild: ff-badischl.at)

The Upper Austrian State Emergency Operations Center alerted the Bad Ischl main fire station, the Pfandl volunteer fire department and the Reiterndorf fire station. Due to the fact that it was an old building with a wooden ceiling and the small number of firefighters available during the working days, the Perneck fire station was also alerted.

Building ventilated
When the volunteer firefighters arrived, the kitchen fire was largely extinguished, but the breathing apparatus teams still had to carry out extinguishing work and ensure that the fire had not spread to the wooden ceiling or the wooden formwork. The building was cleared of smoke using high-performance ventilation equipment.

Rescue provided care
In all the excitement, the cats had hidden in the building. They were found by the emergency services and brought outside. The occupants were treated by the Bad Ischl Red Cross. The incident was recorded by the police and the two cats were examined by a vet.