A fire in the basement of the Sickinger bakery on Aubinger Strasse caused property damage in the five-figure range.
Prudent action by employees and owners as well as a professional fire brigade prevent worse.
But the bakery is currently unable to produce and will only reopen its seven branches next week.
Graefelfing
- On Friday night, around 1.30 a.m., the employees who were already working in the bakery noticed a smell like burnt plastic.
Shortly thereafter, the lights flickered.
A check in the basement revealed that a smoldering fire had broken out in the main power distribution box.
At the same time as the first attempt to delete the data, the employees informed the managing director Peter Sickinger jun.
"There was smoke throughout the building and we alerted the fire brigade and at the same time evacuated the entire building immediately," said Peter Sickinger in the Merkur interview.
Twelve minutes after the call, the full team of the fire brigade was on site.
The day after, the manager was still very impressed by the rescuers - and grateful: "They extinguished the fire in a highly professional, structured and sovereign manner."
Flour stored far enough away
Operations manager and commander Markus Fuchs was the first to arrive.
“When we came, the whole building with the bakery and apartments had already been cleared out in an exemplary manner.
The distribution box in the basement was fully engulfed in fire and the entire basement area was heavily smoked.
That could have developed into a massive basement fire," says Fuchs.
The fire brigade attacked simultaneously from two sides, via the bakery and the rear access to the courtyard.
The flames were quickly extinguished.
That was important.
Because when a bakery catches fire, the rescuers always have the danger in the back of their minds that flour dust can lead to a deflagration.
In this case, Markus Fuchs was able to eliminate this danger quickly: "Fortunately, the storage bunker for the flour was far enough away from the fire," he says.
And Peter Sickinger states: "We got off lightly." The fire brigade ventilated the building with three overpressure devices.
"This took a lot of time due to the branched basement rooms," says press spokesman Thomas Hickel.
The helpers then left their "electricity and lighting" mobile container on site to maintain emergency operations.
The operation was over after a good three hours.
Employees and family help with cleaning
For the owners and employees of the traditional bakery, the work was only just beginning - and Peter Sickinger jun.
experienced what it means to have a large family and a loyal team at your side in times of need.
“All employees clean every square centimeter of the bakery.
And our electrician is working with several people to restore the power connections," reported the master baker the morning after the fire, whose damage he estimated at "several tens of thousands of euros".
The aim of the effort: "We would like to try to open and deliver to our branches again on Tuesday after the long weekend."