An employee saw a glow of fire

Dagmar besand it was thanks to the alertness and quick reaction of an employee that a fire at the company arno friedrichs hartmetall gmbh& co. KG in mainleus has a mild outcome. Shortly after midnight, the 32-year-old on his way to the parking lot noticed a glow of fire in a part of the factory building where the hazardous materials warehouse is located.

Concern about hazardous materials storage

The man acted immediately and made an emergency call. At 0.19 o’clock the fire-brigade was alarmed, few minutes later were numerous emergency vehicles of altogether ten fire-brigades from the districts kulmbach and lichtenfels on the scene.

The first response team determined that the fire was not in the actual hazardous materials warehouse, but that there was only an electrical fire in an adjacent room that had spread to small containers of various products.

Using breathing apparatus and a turntable ladder, the firefighters quickly gained access to the affected part of the building. They loosened the burning bundles and brought them outdoors.

In the meantime, a second squad with breathing protection explored the interior of the entire building to check whether there were any other sources of fire somewhere. "The entire building was heavily smoked, but there was no other fire", said district fire chief yves wachter, spokesman for the fire departments in kulmbach county. "The danger was averted after a short time."

No injured

Since no one was working in the building at the time of the fire, fortunately no one was injured.

"The early detection of the fire and the drafty approach of the firefighters also ensured that the fire did not spread and no adjacent structures were affected", according to the kulmbach police. The property damage is nevertheless considerable and, according to initial estimates, amounts to "a mid-figure sum". The kulmbach police have begun investigating the cause of the fire at the scene; there are currently no indications that the fire was caused by someone else.

115 firefighters from the fire departments of mainleus, kulmbach, schwarzach, buchau, schmeilsdorf, prob, mainroth, burgkunstadt, rothwind-fassoldshof, the respiratory protection logistics team from stadtsteinach, the county fire department and the hazardous materials inspector were deployed with several vehicles, a turntable ladder and special equipment. The head of operations was christoph zimmermann, 1. Commander of the mainleus fire department. Also on site were the red cross with 16 helpers and emergency medical and rescue vehicles, as well as two helpers from the THW and the kulmbach police with four officers.