A fire in an apartment in Vienna’s Floridsdorf district claimed one fatality on Saturday night. A fire broke out on the fifth floor of an apartment building. When the firefighters forcibly entered the apartment, they came across the motionless tenant. Any help came too late for the 86-year-old.
At around 3.15 a.m., the Vienna fire brigade was alerted to the scene of the fire in Doderergasse. Witnesses had noticed smoke coming out of the windows. Alarm level 2 was temporarily declared. The Viennese police reported on Saturday morning that the firefighters forcibly gained access to the apartment in question while wearing respiratory protection.
In the premises, the emergency services encountered the lifeless 86-year-old, for whom there was no longer any rescue.
Cigarette as a trigger?
The fire was subsequently fought and quickly extinguished. A smoke build-up in the stairwell was prevented by the rapid deployment, said fire department spokesman Gerald Schimpf when asked by the APA. “Therefore it was not necessary to bring a large number of residents to safety.” Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing. According to initial surveys, the fire could have been started by a cigarette.