On Tuesday, a police student came to the rescue when the historic home of an 89-year-old couple in Frohnleiten, Styria, caught fire. Without hesitation, Marcel Schaffer rushed upstairs, where the pensioner was still in bed. “I knew she wouldn’t get out alive otherwise,” says the 21-year-old.
On Tuesday morning, an elderly couple was surprised by the fire while they were sleeping. It was around 7:30 a.m. when the historic house on the central square of Frohnleiten suddenly caught fire. But the two 89-year-olds were lucky: a police student turned out to be a “guardian angel” – without him they might not have survived.
“Smoke from the windows”
“I was on my way to the police station, walking along the central square and saw smoke coming out of the windows,” says 21-year-old Marcel Schaffer. At that moment, a concerned neighbor had already come to the 16th-century house and alerted the fire department.
But the courageous police student, who himself was involved in the fire department and the Red Cross, didn’t want to wait any longer for the emergency services. “I knocked, rang the bell and shouted, but I didn’t know if anyone would hear me. I just hoped that someone would open up,” he says.
The couple was woken from their sleep
Suddenly, the door actually opened and an older gentleman looked at him. Schaffer did not know the residents – the older gentleman seemed very surprised by the unexpected visit. “He wanted to run back upstairs to get his slippers,” Schaffer says.
But the police student stopped him and stormed to the first floor himself. “I saw the kitchen on the right in full flames. The situation was on the edge, it was quite smoky.” But he made his way to the bedroom, where the 89-year-old’s wife was still in bed.
A faulty electric stove caused the fire
She also didn’t want to leave her things behind. “She really wanted to go to the kitchen to put out the fire herself. I grabbed her and went downstairs with her,” says the 21-year-old. When they got outside, Schaffer felt a weight lift from his heart.
Had he ever experienced such an extreme situation? “No, never to this extent. But I went in without hesitation, because I knew she wouldn’t get out alive otherwise,” he says. Fortunately, the fire brigades (Frohnleiten, Röthelstein, MM Verpackung and Sappi) had also arrived in the meantime. A defective electric stove turned out to be the cause of the fire and within an hour the fire was extinguished. And Schaffer walked to the police station, where he took up his duties.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
