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The thick waves of smoke rising on the west side of the Hllengebirge could also be clearly seen from the valley. It was August 2, 2013, one of the hottest days of the year, when a 1000 square meter forest area near the Attersee via ferrata near Steinbach (Vcklabruck district) caught fire. A few minutes later, the entire Steinbach Mountain Rescue Service was on their feet. “There were still people on the via ferrata that we had to go down to the valley immediately,” recalls its director Stephan Santer.
“We are disappointed”
The fire, which finally spread to an area of 5,000 square meters due to the wind, was not just a matter of local firefighters in the following days: “We cordoned off roads, assigned marshals, took care of the transport of material and security work”, Santer says.
- Video: OGH rejects compensation for mountain rescue
The flames were finally extinguished after three days, but the legal dispute over the costs of the operation, which erupted afterwards, dragged on for more than seven years. It was not until November 2020 that the municipality of Steinbach, which assumes financial responsibility for its fire department, was approved by the Supreme Court (OGH): the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry had to bear the costs of extinction of 114,000 euros. The mountain rescue team involved in the operation also claimed to the republic the reimbursement of expenses amounting to 4,087.50 euros. The district and regional courts found the Upper Austrian mountain rescue service to be correct, but the Supreme Court decided differently: mountain rescuers keep the costs and also have to reimburse the court costs of 3,348.34 euros.
The reason: For the operation there should have been an express order from the municipality beforehand; this is the only way to claim compensation in accordance with the Upper Austrian Forest Fire Fighting Act. Since the mountain rescue service charges a flat hourly rate regardless of the number of members who have left, the OGH viewed the rate as separate from actual spending. Therefore, a two-person fire watch should be evaluated in the same way as a large-scale operation with ten times the manpower, according to the Supreme Court ruling. The mountain rescue would only be entitled to personnel expenses “if they have actually been incurred”.
There is also no cost reimbursement for the large wildfires in Hallstatt (2018) and Mondsee (2019), where mountain rescuers were on duty for hours.
“We are disappointed, but of course we continue to support the fire brigades. It will be difficult in the future to cover the costs of the rescue operation without compensation for equipment costs in the event of wildfires,” says Christoph Preimesberger, Chief of Mountain rescue in Upper Austria. Legal experts are currently examining whether and how a billing adjustment to the allowance might be more promising. Time is of the essence because such allocations increase rapidly.
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Gabriel Egger
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