Vienna celebrates 10 years of fire investigator: Use for security and justice!

Vienna celebrates 10 years of fire investigator: Use for security and justice!

Exactly ten years ago, a decisive step in the fire investigation was taken in Vienna: the foundation of a centralized fire group at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA). Since then, this special unit has established itself as a model and consists of 18 highly qualified investigators that are well trained for operations in fires, explosions and other incidents. Every year they are alerted between 1,200 and 1,500 times, as Gerald Ryba, the head of the fire group, explained. Tragic balance: 1,007 people have been injured in fires in the past ten years, while 221 people lost their lives. The number of unreported cases could be even higher, which underlines the urgency of the work of the fire investigators, which often have to be confronted with legally and emotionally delicate questions. This situation was recently reinforced by a particularly striking incident: On November 19, a U1 set was completely burned down during a transition trip, a happy circumstance, since no passengers were present, such as reported .

intensive missions and emotional challenges

The fire group is not only responsible for the clarification of fires, but also for the processing of the traumatic consequences that such tragedies bring. In this way, investigators should often provide the bereaved, which increases the emotional load of their work. They experienced an example of their seriousness on November 27, when six parked cars in Vienna-Floridsdorf became a robbery of the flames after a 60-year-old Syrian intentionally set them on fire to cover up a clan conflict.