Fireman injured – forest fire raged on 115 hectares in the Rax area

A forest fire has been raging in Reichenau an der Rax in Lower Austria since Monday. The fire spread over 115 hectares overnight. 300 firefighters from 23 firefighters were on duty on Tuesday morning. According to the state fire brigade command, one person suffered – not life-threatening – injuries from a rock fall.

According to the district fire brigade commander Josef Huber, it is a “massive forest fire”. Fire-fighting measures from the ground were impossible due to the steep slopes in the area. Rock falls also endanger the teams, said Huber. Two helicopters from the Federal Armed Forces and four aircraft from the Ministry of the Interior were therefore in use.

Bad weather forecast
A total of eight helicopters will try to extinguish the fire on the steep slope during the day, said the spokesman for the Lower Austria fire brigade command, Franz Resperger. “The fire is not yet under control and the weather forecast is not a good one.” For the next five days there will be no rain and an additional east wind. In the late morning, the emergency services cut aisles into the unaffected area in order to avoid a so-called fire jump.

Brand spread extremely quickly
According to Resperger, the fire spread extremely quickly, from five to 100 hectares within ten hours. The partly vertical rock walls are a huge problem, he also pointed out that rock erupts again and again. A firefighter was injured as a result and he was taken to the hospital.

The emergency services also worried that the fire could spread to the Rax, which is located across from the currently affected area. Units are therefore positioned at the neuralgic points to prevent flying sparks.

Resperger also stated that the state fire brigade commander Dietmar Fahrafellner and the Vienna city councilor Jürgen Czernohorszky (SPÖ) are at the scene to get an idea. The affected area is largely owned by the City of Vienna.

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