Fire reaches garden fences as Föhrenwald blaze remains under control

According to ORF, a fire in the Föhrenwald forest near St. Egyden am Steinfeld in the Neunkirchen district remains under control. Flames reached the garden fence of a nearby couple, while around 250 residents had to leave their homes on Friday.

“We were incredibly lucky that the wind changed direction,” Helmut Walenta told ORF. “Otherwise the houses would have been gone.” The flames were extinguished only a few metres from the affected homes.

Many residents only realised the extent of the danger the following day. “Today we can see how close it really was,” Auguste Walenta said.

Firefighters said water supplies had become limited after weeks of dry weather. Crews partly used water from private swimming pools, including the Walentas’ pool, during the operation.

The fire was still not officially declared extinguished on Saturday. Around 250 firefighters were carrying out follow-up work, searching for and extinguishing smouldering hotspots. “It looks good for now,” said Patrik Lechner of the district fire command.

The blaze began around midday on Friday and affected about 64 hectares, according to the fire service. More than 830 firefighters and 11 helicopters were involved in the major operation. The cadastral municipality of Neusiedl am Steinfeld was briefly evacuated after the flames spread towards homes, but the approximately 250 residents were able to return that evening. The fire was brought under control at about 6 p.m.

Five emergency responders received medical treatment at the scene, Notruf Niederösterreich said in a statement. The district command said four firefighters suffered minor injuries. The cause of the fire was not initially known. Fire officials said it had started in a different area from the previous week’s blaze.

Firefighters warned residents to avoid the area around the Föhrenwald forest over a wide radius and to keep access and emergency routes clear. They said anyone approaching the operation unnecessarily could obstruct the emergency services and put themselves at risk.

Fire danger is currently high across the whole country because of extreme dryness. The fire service said the Neunkirchen and Wiener Neustadt districts were among the hotspots, while the forecast indicated that insufficient rainfall was expected in the coming days to ease the situation.

The latest blaze followed another major fire in the Föhrenwald the previous week, which spread across about 100 hectares and was not declared extinguished until Sunday evening. Police investigations reportedly attributed that fire to phosphorus in ammunition parts from a factory demolished at the end of the Second World War.