Christmas tree candles set family home on fire: damage of 300,000 euros

Created: 05/01/2023, 17:00

By: Elisa Buhrke

When the volunteer fire brigades Rottach-Egern and Kreuth arrived, the entire house facade was already on fire.

© Rottach-Egern volunteer fire brigade

In Rottach-Egern, Christmas tree candles have sparked a house fire.

This resulted in property damage of around 300,000 euros, and the homeowner suffered minor burn injuries.

Rottach-Egern – First the Christmas tree caught fire, then the whole building: On Wednesday evening, January 4th, the Rottach-Egern and Kreuth volunteer fire brigade had to move in to extinguish a burning single-family house in the district of Oberach.

According to a press release from the Bad Wiessee Police Inspectorate, the homeowner initially tried in vain to control the flames himself.

When the fire brigade and the police arrived, the entire facade was already affected.

Fortunately, the 74-year-old only suffered minor injuries to his left hand, while his 44-year-old daughter was unharmed.

However, the family faces property damage of around 300,000 euros.

Major fire in Rottach-Egern: shattered windows and the flames spread extremely quickly

Since the burning house was in the immediate vicinity of the next extinguishing station, the emergency services were able to provide help and evacuate the residents just a few seconds after the alarm went off, writes Tobias Maurer, first chairman of the Rottach-Egern fire brigade.

However, when they arrived, the building could hardly be saved: Windows had burst, the flames had taken half the ground floor and the balcony on the upper floor and were moving towards the roof structure.

"Because plastic insulation was installed behind the plaster layer on the outer facade, the fire found 'extremely good food' here," says Maurer.

The high proportion of wood would also have led to the flames spreading quickly.

Everything destroyed: The emergency services had to break down entire walls to remove the embers.

© Rottach-Egern volunteer fire brigade

Firefighters were able to put out the blaze within two hours, breaking through walls and ceilings to reach all hot spots.

A total of 95 men in 14 emergency vehicles from the Rottach-Egern and Kreuth fire departments arrived.

But that was not the end of the work either: Comrades from Oberach held a fire watch in shifts until the next morning.

The family home is no longer habitable after the fire.

Real candles on Christmas trees always pose a fire risk: last year, an elderly couple from Garching suffered burns and smoke inhalation, in 2021 a 69-year-old died unnoticed in Munich as a result of a Christmas tree fire.

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