Woman dies in Graz apartment fire without a smoke alarm

A woman died in a fire at her apartment in Graz’s Lend district, ORF reported. Neighbours spotted the fire at about 3.30am on Tuesday and called emergency services.

The fire was in a ground-floor apartment in a multi-unit building on Austeingasse. Firefighters forced open the door and found the resident unconscious in the kitchen. They took her outside and handed her over to ambulance crews, but resuscitation efforts failed.

Dense smoke had spread into the building’s stairwell and an apartment above, which had to be ventilated. The Graz professional fire brigade responded with five vehicles and 23 personnel.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Firefighters said there was no smoke alarm in the apartment. Incident commander Gerald Wonner said smoke alarms could make a decisive difference in an emergency and that the fire might have had a different outcome if one had been installed.