Massive clouds of smoke over Hallein: fire brigade in large -scale use!

Massive clouds of smoke over Hallein: fire brigade in large -scale use!

Rif, Hallein, Salzburg, Österreich - on July 1, 2025, at 5:20 p.m., a major fire broke out in the Emco warehouse in Rif, Hallein (Salzburg). The Hallein volunteer fire brigade was initially alerted due to a fire alarm. During the journey, a massive column of smoke over the industrial object was visible, which illustrated the drama of the situation. The fire brigades from Bad Dürrnberg were alerted during the journey and when they arrived at the site, the situation turned out to be worrying: the warehouse burned into full fire and was surrounded by dense swaths of smoke. An extensive extinguishing attack was initiated immediately, including with a turning ear of Hallein and several respiratory protection teams.

A central goal of extensive use was to prevent the flames from spreading to adjacent office buildings and other parts of the building. In order to meet this goal, the site was divided into two sections, north and south. In addition, at 6:12 p.m., the AT-Alert was to be activated, a warning to the population, windows and doors closed due to the dense smoke that moved to the surrounding communities of Hallein, Oberalm, Puch and Anif.

challenges for the emergency services

The water supply was a significant challenge. A total of about 1.8 million liters of water were needed to combat the fire. Due to low precipitation, a shortage of water in the districts of Rif and Rehhof could be found. Preventive feed lines had to be set up by the Königseeache, and a shuttle traffic with tanker vehicles was organized. At times, up to four lines were in operation to introduce the necessary amounts of water. Despite these measures, ensuring the extinguishing water supply was a critical point during the entire use.

at 6:16 p.m. alarm level 3 was triggered, which resulted in the re -alarmation of further voluntary fire departments. Later, at 6:32 p.m., there was further escalation on alarm level 4 with further post -alarms. The challenges that the emergency services faced were varied: the high heat, the risk of collapse of the hall construction and the contaminated extinguishing water significantly made the extinguishing work.

control over the location and re -extinguishing work

The fire could be brought under control at around 8:00 p.m. The localization of embers and a metal fire was found around 9:00 p.m. Despite the control of the flames, the fire brigade only gave a all -clear for the population shortly after midnight. The post -extinguishing work went into the early afternoon of the following day. The site was handed over to employees at 2:00 p.m. after the extensive measures.

accident analyzes to the cause of the fire have already started, but so far no specific results have been recorded. The warehouse is currently considered to be in danger of collapse, which means that safe access for experts is not yet possible. An estimate of the property damage is also pending. However, production at EMCO was resumed the following Thursday after the extinguishing water pumped out and the work areas were restored.

A total of around 360 emergency services and 75 vehicles were involved in one of the largest and most complex fire operations in Hallein. The emergency services came from various organizations and proved through their coordinated procedure that regular exercises, modern equipment and well -established processes are essential for the successful completion of such an assignment. The [Salzburg24] reports that the fire was a major challenge not only on the basis of the danger situation, but also because of the not fully filled groundwater memory. The [CFS CTIF] provides further information on fire statistics and operations worldwide, whose report summarizes extensive analyzes on fire departments and the missions of the past few years in the entire global context.