Stephan Waltl seems to be an unshakable optimist, because day one after the devastating fire in “his” golf club restaurant in Ulrichsberg is also day one of the reconstruction. He only briefly thought about giving up on Friday night: “At the moment you’re already thinking that you won’t recover from this blow. Now, a day later, I’m more confident again.”
Together with his team, he has put his heart and soul into the entire golf park and the restaurant over the past few years.
The dusty golf restaurant has become a popular destination for families. The golf course was transformed into a Bohemian Forest Park with numerous attractions for families. That also brought in the award as the most popular family excursion destination in Upper Austria this year.
Renewed a year ago
“Almost exactly a year ago to the day, we put the new benches in the restaurant,” recalls restaurant manager Johanna Pfoser. For her, the afternoon of the fire should have been a nice one: “I met a future employee and we just discussed everything on the terrace,” she says the day after the fire. In times of acute staff shortages, such appointments are of course among the most pleasant for a restaurateur.
Noticed plumes of smoke
Then, around three-thirty, she noticed the smell of smoke. “I immediately went to the restaurant and discovered the fire in the kitchen,” she recalls. Boldly, Pfoser – herself a firefighter herself – grabbed the fire extinguishers. “I pulled several extinguishers, but the fire could no longer be contained,” she says. An employee was even in the kitchen eating something when the fire broke out. “It all happened very quickly. The fire moved upwards and immediately caught the roof structure,” says Waltl.
Video: Interview with Stephan Waltl
Fire brigades helped quickly
When the alarmed fire brigades arrived at the scene, the roof structure of the building was already fully engulfed in fire. First, an external attack was launched, and as soon as possible, the respiratory protection squads also advanced inside the inn. The firefighters were able to bring the fire under control after a good hour, but large parts of the roof structure fell victim to the flames. The fire was fired by head of operations Lukas Schauberger from FF Ulrichsberg on Friday around 9 a.m. The firefighting water supply in particular caused difficulties for the emergency services. Finally, the ponds at the golf course were “tapped”.
Video: Head of Operations Lukas Schauberger
The turntable ladder from Rohrbach was also requested for support and the Breitenberg fire brigade from neighboring Bavaria was alerted.
It basically goes on
“We renovated the inn a year ago and were full of euphoria – even after the two difficult years of Corona and despite the current price increases. We were really motivated now. Now we will first start an emergency operation and set up office containers. But of course we can’t offer visitors to the amusement park a tavern at the moment,” says Stephan Waltl. The restaurant was fully booked for Mother’s Day.
In some way, however, they want to bridge the time of reconstruction: “There are many ideas on how we could feed our visitors. Maybe with food trucks. Now we’re going to check everything out, but there are ideas,” the golf club president looks to the future with confidence. By the way, golfing continues without restrictions. The day after the fire, the first golfers roamed the course and lawn care was resumed.
The 30-year-old building suffered significant damage. The exact cause of the fire is being determined by police specialists.
Source: Nachrichten
