In the Swiss municipality of Gossau, not far from the border with Vorarlberg, two pig stables caught fire early on Wednesday evening for reasons that are still unclear. The consequences were tragic.
When emergency services arrived at the scene of the fire shortly after 5pm, they were greeted with a horrific scene: one stable was already on fire and thick clouds of smoke were pouring through the second. There were still 1,500 pigs of various ages in the buildings at the time and the background noise was correspondingly intense.
The approximately 100 firefighters tried to save what could be saved: they immediately started extinguishing the fire and at the same time provided fresh air in the smoke-filled second stable with fans. Thanks to this measure, the 90 mother pigs and 600 piglets were saved.
However, the other stable building burned to the ground. It was also not possible to evacuate the pigs because parts of the roof collapsed just a few minutes after the fire brigade arrived. Moreover, the fire-fighting activities were very difficult due to the water shortage; transport pipes had to be laid first. So there was no salvation for the pigs anymore.
On Thursday morning, the St. Gallen cantonal police finally officially confirmed: all 800 animals were dead. The residential building next to the two stable buildings was also damaged by the fire, and the total damage is expected to amount to several hundreds of thousands of euros. The cause of the fire is still completely unknown, but the investigation by the “Forensics Competence Center” of the St. Gallen Cantonal Police is ongoing.
Source: Krone
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