A man in Vienna’s 10th district, Favoriten, was dramatically rescued by firefighters on Sunday morning after he escaped a fire in his flat by clinging to a window ledge.
When emergency services arrived, the man was hanging dangerously from the window of his second-floor flat. He was safely brought down using an air cushion, according to a statement.
The blaze began on a balcony of the multi-storey building early in the morning and swiftly spread to the flat and the roof. The resident was trapped inside by smoke and flames and had to climb out of the window.
“When the first firefighters arrived, the balcony was already fully ablaze, and the man was hanging from the window, clinging to the ledge. He was urged to hold on by shouts from the firefighters and was eventually able to jump into a swiftly deployed air cushion,” the fire service reported.
Firefighters in breathing apparatus extinguished the fire with two hoses and checked the neighbouring flats. The resident was attended to by Vienna’s emergency medical services and subsequently transported to hospital.