Major fire in Uttwil: "The physical stress was great"

Firefighters were on duty until the wee hours of the morning. (Photo: Kapo TG)

"At 2:16 we were alerted and we left immediately," says Stephan Good, president of the Dozwil-Kesswil-Uttwil fire department. "In a few minutes, we were there and took the first steps." They quickly realized that the fire was raging mainly in the attic, so they alerted the bases Romanshorn and Amriswil.

"The Romanshorner has a car turntable and the Amriswiler a rescue vehicle, with which we were able to fight the fire from above." Later, the respiratory protection department of the Arbon Fire Department arrived. "Our guard simply has too few people, and we knew it would be a long operation," says Good. "The physical stress was very big, the fire was inside the building, so we had to open the facade to get to the source of the fire."

Large-scale fire and police operation [19659009] A total of 120 firefighters moved in. There were 30 people from Romanshorn and Amriswil, 20 from Arbon and 20 from Uttwil.They were used until the wee hours of the morning At half-past seven, smoke was still rising from the building, the fire department was also at 10:15 am, still on the site, checked the house for other fire hazards and extinguished the fire. last glow. "Fortunately, no one was hurt," says Good.The building is currently under construction, which is why there were no people inside. emergency services assume that the bangs, which woke a lot of sleep neighbors, came from gas cylinders, which were uti Built for construction

After the building was secured, investigations began with forensic science, the fire investigation service of the Thurgau cantonal police and an expert in electricity. According to the first investigations, material damage amounted to several thousand francs. The police investigation can take up to a week. "At the moment, there is no information on the cause of the fire," said Mario Christen, spokesman for the cantonal police of Thurgau.

A shock for the neighbors

"We sleep in the summer with open windows," says a neighbor. "I heard a crackle and it smelled like burnt." At first, she thought it was her son, who made a fire with friends in the garden. "Then I saw the blue light and from the bottom of the voices screaming orders." She had come down and saw that the firefighters were already there and smoke was rising from the attic of the building. "I immediately woke up my husband, who is also at the fire department." The next time she looked outside, the building was in flames. "It was incredibly fast, my husband left immediately and came back home only at half-past eight."

The situation had been very scary. "We were afraid that the bangs would sparks and set the surrounding houses on fire." Around 3:45, the police rang the bell. "They asked us if we had seen anything or anyone near the building." No one noticed anything. Another neighbor was one of the first to alert the police. "You usually only see this in the videos or you read it in the newspaper," she says. "The first-hand experience is a shock."