Fire crews contain St. Egyden forest blaze as hotspots persist

Fire crews have brought a major forest fire in St. Egyden am Steinfeld in the Neunkirchen district under control, although isolated hotspots continued to flare on Sunday, ORF reported. Local fire brigades were able to extinguish them quickly.

“We have it under control. It looks great,” Patrik Lechner of the district fire brigade command told the Austrian Press Agency on Sunday. Crews continued suppression work and carried out inspection drives across the burned areas. The fire is unlikely to be officially declared extinguished for several more days, he said.

Only local fire brigades remained at the scene. Supporting units withdrew as planned on Saturday evening after the district command staff was disbanded at 6 p.m. The fire affected about 64 hectares.

The blaze in the Föhrenwald forest broke out around midday on Friday, prompting a major operation involving more than 830 firefighters and 11 helicopters. The cadastral municipality of Neusiedl was briefly evacuated after the flames spread towards homes. About 250 residents were able to return that evening once the fire had been brought under control.

Five emergency responders required medical treatment at the scene. The cause of the fire had not been established.

The fire affected a different area from a blaze the previous week that spread across about 100 hectares. Police said that fire may have been caused by phosphorus in ammunition parts from a factory demolished at the end of the Second World War.

Other forest fires reported

Several smaller forest fires also kept fire brigades busy elsewhere in Austria over the weekend. In Waidhofen an der Ybbs, crews noticed a fire near a dry forest while travelling to an old-timer vehicle fire. The flames threatened to spread across a cycle path into the forest but were quickly brought under control.

At a forest fire between Neudörfl and Pöttsching in the Mattersburg district, a remnant from the Second World War exploded on Saturday. Firefighters, including some from Lower Austria, were withdrawn from the danger zone and continued fighting the fire from a safe distance.

In Tyrol, a small area of the Großhanserwald forest near Steeg in the Reutte district caught fire on Saturday. Six fire brigades fought the flames for about three hours, with a police helicopter also assisting because of the difficult access.