It’s a sad certainty. Five-year-old Matthias and his two-year-old brother Johannes could not be saved. They died when they and their mom stepped into an alley in the garage where a gasoline generator was running due to the power cut after a storm. Mama struggles with death. And the boys’ dad takes all the blame on himself: “I forgot to open the window.”
The resuscitated children died in the Graz University Clinic after attempts were made there to “squeeze” the carbon monoxide out of their bodies, but there was no rescue. The mother, who was also resuscitated, was flown to Regensburg, is artificially ventilated in the pressure chamber.
Reconstructed misfortune
In the meantime, the accident has been reconstructed: During the night, trees cut by the storm cut the power supply to the house. On Monday, at 5.30 a.m., Dad turned on the generator, which was housed in the next room of the garage, and went to work. A neighbor refueled the device, which had already run out, at around 8 a.m., switched it on again. “I didn’t pay attention to the ventilation,” he told the police. When mom and children went to look that morning, they got caught in the colorless and odorless lake of carbon monoxide.
Grandma sounded the alarm
The grandma, who also lives in the Sacherl, had sounded the alarm around noon because she could not hear the children playing and romping. She was unable to check herself because of her walking difficulties – so one of her daughters, who lives in the neighboring village, looked and discovered the tragedy.
More in your “crown”
In our current print edition of the Upper Austrian “Krone” you can read more about the Lasberg drama.