Shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday, an emergency call was received by the Carinthian fire department: a caller had noticed heavy smoke development in the former tourism vocational school in Villach.
The building has actually been empty for a long time – but there was still a fire in the basement and on the ground floor of the old school in the Wollanig district. “When the first firefighters arrived at the scene, massive smoke could already be seen coming out of the windows in the basement and on the ground floor,” according to the Villach main fire station. Around 60 firefighters from three fire departments were on site with 13 vehicles; Several breathing apparatus teams – equipped with thermal imaging cameras and fire hoses – fought their way into the completely smoke-filled building: “The entire building had to be searched for people and at the same time the source of the fire had to be located and fought!” Burning material was on the ground floorWhen it was clear that there were no longer any people in the school, the smoke was blown outside with the help of several high-performance fans: “The still smoldering burning material, which was on the ground floor of the building, was taken outside and completely extinguished there,” reports Senior Fire Inspector Martin Regenfelder.The Villach Criminal Investigation Department is now investigating what caused the fire in the empty building – after around 2.5 hours the firefighters returned.
source site-12