“Nobody reacted” – Brave Steyrer extinguishes fire in stranger’s apartment

On his way to a construction site, Robert Petrusic discovered flames in a ground floor apartment in Steyr. It was immediately clear to the 30-year-old that he had to help.

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“We knocked on the windows all around, but no one responded,” recalls Petrusic, who was on the road with two other workers. So he acted quickly. He got a ladder from the company bus, which he was on his way to a construction site, and kicked in the kitchen window. “I work in the industry myself, so I know how a window works,” he laughs. Armed with a fire blanket from the bus, he entered the stranger’s apartment.

Technical defect as a possible cause

With the help of the blanket, he was able to quickly extinguish the fire that had broken out on the hob. The noise of the broken window eventually woke up the 58-year-old resident. “She was pretty confused by the whole situation,” said the 30-year-old. The woman apparently hadn’t noticed the fire beforehand. Petrusic then sent her out of the already smoke-filled apartment: “As she was leaving, she told me that she had a few cats. I then opened the windows so they could go outside.”

In the meantime, a resident alerted the police. “When they arrived, everything had already been put out,” said the brave witness. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. A technical defect on the hob is currently suspected to be the cause of the fire, and investigations are still ongoing.