AUSTRIA/FILE: Austria remembers 10th anniversary of Kaprun funicular railway fire

Record ID: 591427

  • Title: AUSTRIA/FILE: Austria remembers 10th anniversary of Kaprun funicular railway fire
  • Date: 12th November 2010
  • Summary: KAPRUN, AUSTRIA (FILE - NOVEMBER 11, 2000) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) SNOW COVERED MOUNTAIN AS HELICOPTER NOISE IS HEARD SIGN POINTING TO "KITZSTEINHORN FUNICULAR RAILWAY" ENTRANCE TO TUNNEL WHERE FIRE BROKE OUT HELICOPTER LANDING NEXT TO SEVERAL OTHER HELICOPTERS PARKED IN FIELD ROW OF AMBULANCES DRIVING PAST RESCUERS CARRYING PERSON ON STRETCHER, SEEN BETWEEN MAKE
  • Embargoed: 27th November 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA83C6BPAOO6869XWIBHZI86MCC
  • Story Text: Ten years to the day after a fire inside a funicular railway in the Austrian alps killed 155 skiers, many of them children, grieving relatives gathered for a sombre memorial service in Kaprun on Thursday (November 11).
    Among those present was Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.
    A priest held an outdoor memorial service for the mourners, some of whom had come from neighbouring Germany as well as Japan.
    German, Japanese and American tourists were among the dead when the funicular train packed with skiers was destroyed in an Alpine tunnel blaze.
    Twelve skiers, three more than earlier thought, escaped the inferno by smashing their way out of the train and climbing downhill to safety from the noxious fumes generated by the fire deep inside the 3,200-metre Kitzsteinhorn mountain near Kaprun.
    Austrian Werner Kirnbauer, who lost his son in the fire, attended the ceremony.
    After a local court acquitted all 16 accused in the trial against the operators of the funicular railway, Kirnbauer said he lost confidence in the Austrian legal system.
    "We have no chance against this lobby. They are too powerful. In this respect, Austria really is a Balkan country," he said.
    Hitoshi Narahara came from Japan to mourn his daughter.
    His voice breaking, he said "I come here every year to apologise to my daughter because it was me who sent her skiing here."
    "This is how I take my responsibility, by coming here each year to apologise and that's what I also demand from those responsible," Narahara said.
    In a recent interview with Reuters Television at her home in Germany, the mother of a 14-year-old boy who lost his life in the blaze recounted how she took the acquittal.
    "After this never ending trial with all its mistakes and everything that happened and the acquittals, which were just so incomprehensible for us, we put a lot of hope into the appeal," she said.
    Investigations into the accident later found that a manipulated fan heater was to blame for the fire.
    Geiger, whose son Matthias was part of a ski course with young German hopefuls said "we thought that maybe a new judge and a new court would mean that we could get a fair trial," she said.
    "But once we realised that there was no interest there either, we all felt at rock bottom and we asked ourselves how this was possible."
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