All Clear for Residents After Major Fire at Emco Company in Hallein

Following the major fire at the machine tool manufacturer Emco in Hallein (Tennengau) on Tuesday evening, the fire brigade was still on duty on Wednesday morning. "We are still busy with extinguishing operations and putting out embers," said Hallein fire chief and operations manager Sebastian Wass to the APA. Production at the company has been temporarily halted but is expected to resume on Thursday.

Extinguishing operations after major fire continue

The environmental alert for Hallein and the neighboring communities was lifted during the night. On Wednesday, around 20 helpers from the Hallein fire brigade were still on duty. According to Wass, the hall where the fire broke out on Tuesday at around 5:00 p.m. is completely destroyed. Part of the roof collapsed in the evening. However, the spread of the flames to the surrounding company buildings was prevented, "these are at most slightly damaged."

The fire brigade issued the highest alert level on Tuesday. Around 300 firefighters with 49 vehicles from the entire area - including from the state capital and neighboring Bavaria - were deployed. Several extinguishing lines were laid from the Königsseeache to the company premises, and a so-called tank shuttle service with tank fire engines was set up. The firefighters opened parts of the roof to be able to extinguish the fire. Fortunately, according to fire brigade spokesman Rupert Unterwurzacher, there were no injuries. The black column of smoke rising from the fire was still visible from the city of Salzburg.

Environmental alert lifted during the night

The residents of Hallein and the neighboring communities of Oberalm, Puch, and Anif were urged via the mobile alert AT-Alert late in the afternoon to keep windows closed and leave areas where smoke nuisance is noticeable due to the heavy smoke development. At midnight, the state finally gave the all-clear.

Production Temporarily Halted

The production has been temporarily halted, as Salzburg's GPA head Michael Huber explained to the APA on Wednesday. "All production-related employees are at home." It is still too early to assess how things will proceed. "The problem is that the parts warehouse has burned down." The question now is how quickly the missing parts can be obtained.

For a resumption of production, there should be enough parts available, as the company announced that production operations are expected to resume on Thursday. "As far as I have seen, the hall is completely burned down, but the remaining surrounding production halls are undamaged. The production is fully intact. The IT is also fully intact, the server room was spared," said Emco Managing Director Karl Pichler to the ORF. So they have "gotten away with a black eye." The biggest challenge is replacing those parts that were destroyed in the fire. However, they are already in contact with partners and suppliers.

Continued Payment for Affected Employees

If the production remains halted for a longer period, continued payment for the affected employees is secured, explained Florian Koch from the GPA. The fire legally falls within the employer's sphere, so the salary must continue to be paid as long as the production is halted. The employees are ready to work. According to Koch, employees in the administrative area have already resumed their work today.

The Chamber of Labor has set up a hotline (0664-9627475) for affected employees. Some employees have already reached out, said Koch.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.