Around 3 p.m., the woman saw two boys running out of the forest in the village of Schmidham near Lohnsburg (Ried im Innkreis district) and heard a bang a little later. Then she saw smoke rising above the trees, alerted the fire brigade, ran into the forest and carried out the first extinguishing work with a garden hose. But what happened?
The two boys, a 13-year-old boy and his boyfriend who was two years his junior, had built a warehouse out of branches and pallets in the so-called Riederholz. They had permission from the forest owner to do so. However, the owner would certainly not have approved of the idea that the students came up with on Saturday around 3 p.m.: The young people from the Innviertel began to light small branches with a lighter. The fire soon got out of control and spread quickly through the dried-up undergrowth due to the strong westerly wind.
The boys got scared and ran home for help. The bang, which was heard shortly afterwards, may have come from the explosion of a spray can lying in the children’s shelter. In any case, the neighbors managed to keep the flames under control until the arrival of the Lohnsburg and Riegerting fire brigades. Firefighters were then able to quickly extinguish the fire. “Only through the courageous intervention of the neighbor could a larger forest fire be prevented,” the police are certain.
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Source: Nachrichten
