Two firefighters were attacked on Saturday by a 20-year-old man they were escorting out of a smoke-filled apartment. According to the police, he hit a 30-year-old rescuer in the head and kicked his 26-year-old colleague in the stomach. The two firefighters were taken to hospital with minor injuries. Like their colleagues, they were alerted in the night from Friday to Saturday because residents of an apartment building on Josephsplatz in Maxvorstadt heard a fire alarm.
When the fire engine arrived at around 4:15 a.m., no one opened the door in the apartment concerned. The firefighters opened the door with special tools without violence and found a smoldering fire with smoke. The two rescuers, equipped with respirators, extinguished the fire in the kitchen, which was probably caused by slices of toast forgotten in the oven. The three people sleeping in the apartment were then woken up so that they could leave the smoky rooms, said a police spokesman. One of them, the 20-year-old man, immediately raised himself threateningly and then struck.
The police arrested the apparently drunk attacker. He was released after a blood test. Criminal proceedings await him for assault and “resistance against persons who are equivalent to law enforcement officers” as well as intentional bodily harm.