200 firefighters rescued 120 bulls

A major fire service operation took place on Monday afternoon in St. Marienkirchen an der Polsenz in the Eferding district after a stable building on a farm caught fire. The cause was not yet known on Monday evening, but despite difficult conditions the fire was soon under control.

• Read more: Barn fire in the Eferding district – 17 fire brigades in action

The owner of the farm was busy tending to his fattening cattle at 1 p.m. During this work, the 40-year-old unloaded three bales of straw from a stack of seven bales. When he lifted the forklift, the upper bale of straw fell onto the hot exhaust pipe of the farm loader. As this bale of straw fell into several pieces, the man transported two other bales of straw to the nearby cattle shed. When he returned to the straw storage area, he noticed that the straw in the storage area was already burning. The farmer’s wife alerted the fire brigade at 1:20 p.m.

The firefighting water supply at the scene proved to be unsuitable, and two pipes, each more than a thousand meters long, had to be laid, said district fire chief Hubert Straßer when asked. Alarm level three was therefore triggered and additional forces came to help. In the end, around 200 firefighters from 17 fire departments were deployed. They were able to prevent the flames from spreading to the residential building. A second stable, just a few meters from the source of the fire, which housed around 120 bulls, posed a challenge.

• Read more: Firefighter from Tiefgraben came to the aid of Greek colleagues while on holiday in Crete

It was said that the building had been intensively ventilated. Neither animals nor people were injured. The stable, which had burned down on two sides, was empty except for a straw bed. In the afternoon, a fire expert began his investigations.