There was a nasty surprise for a couple from Neuhausen: When the two returned from a trip last Wednesday afternoon, they discovered that their apartment on the first floor of a five-story house on Leonrodstrasse was filled with smoke. They closed the door again and called the fire department.
They determined that it was an expansion joint fire, i.e. ignited insulation material. The fire started from the neighboring construction site and the smoke apparently moved into the couple’s apartment. The fire brigade used special tools to extinguish the fire from above in the expansion joint. The emergency services also drilled holes in the wall up to the joint and extinguished the fire through them.
When the neighboring apartments were checked, an increased concentration of toxic carbon monoxide was measured, which had already spread over five floors. However, this could be solved by opening the windows; the emergency services later checked that no further toxic gas was actually being released.