Devastating fire

Family of six lose their home on New Year’s Eve

Apocalyptic pictures of the fire in St. Georgen am Kreischberg on New Year's Eve

(Bild: BFV Murau)

The Styrian fire departments can look back on a busy New Year's Eve. Tragic: in St. Georgen ob Kreischberg, the home of a family with four children burned down completely. A farm building in Bad Gleichenberg was engulfed by flames. Fortunately, nobody was injured in either case. 

The family with four children from St. Georgen am Kreischberg (Murau district) had visitors on New Year's Eve when the fire broke out at around 8.30 pm. Initially, a "Troadkasten" (old granary) and a carport next to it were in flames. A short time later, the fire spread to the roof of the residential building and a stable building was also threatened.

When the emergency services arrived, the entire family and visitors were already outside and no one was injured. A total of seven volunteer fire departments with 103 firefighters tried to extinguish the fire. They were able to save the stable building. However, the house and the carport, where three vehicles were located, burned down completely. According to the police, the cause of the fire is still unknown.

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Bad Gleichenberg: Farm building on fire
Two hours later, there was also a major firefighting operation in Bad Gleichenberg in south-eastern Styria. At around 10.20 p.m., a 77-year-old man in the district of Bairisch-Kölldorf noticed a fire in the attic of a farm building. According to the fire department, a neighbor woke up the owner couple. Shortly afterwards, the entire building was on fire.

90 firefighters from seven fire departments (Bairisch Kölldorf, Bad Gleichenberg, Trautmannsdorf, Merkendorf, Feldbach, Hatzendorf, Gossendorf) were deployed, many coming directly from New Year's Eve celebrations. The fire was finally extinguished shortly before 2 a.m. and two nearby residential buildings were saved. There were no injuries in this case either.

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As there was a lack of extinguishing water on site, a shuttle service had to be carried out. 18 vehicles were deployed. Due to the black ice caused by the extinguishing water, municipal employees spread salt. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Fireworks set hedges on fire
According to an initial assessment by the state fire brigade association, there were 15 other hedge and meadow fires in addition to these two major operations, most of which were probably caused by fireworks. Several emergency callers had to be instructed to extinguish still-burning firework batteries with water. 

An example of such an operation: In Spielberg (Murtal district), several thujas caught fire in a residential area at around 7 p.m., just a few meters away from the houses. According to Gerald Stengg (Spielberg fire department), head of operations, 18 firefighters brought the flames under control. The hedge was then examined for residual heat using a thermal imaging camera.

Fire department in Spielberg

(Bild: Thomas Zeiler)

Lack of precipitation, high risk of forest fire
Before New Year's Eve, the Styrian fire department had urgently called on people to refrain from using fireworks or to proceed very carefully. Due to the lack of precipitation in large parts of the country, it is very dry. The risk of forest fires is high, as examples from the past few days (Semriach, Laßnitzhöhe) have shown.