Historic Swiss bathhouse on Lake Constance destroyed in a fire

The 100-year-old wooden bathhouse on stilts is the only one of its kind on the Swiss side of Lake Constance. Keystone-SDA

In the northern Swiss town of Rorschach, the 100-year-old Badhütte (bathing hut) on the shores of Lake Constance burned down early Monday morning. Because the building stands on stilts in the water, fighting the fire has been difficult.

According to the St. Gallen cantonal police, the emergency services were deployed in large numbers. The fire department and the lake rescue service were able to contain the flames at the historic wooden Badhütte, but the bathing hut was lost entirely, the police said.

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Police spokesperson Florian Schneider told the Keystone-SDA news agency this morning that the task now was to extinguish the embers. This is not easy because the bathing hut, the only one of its kind on the Swiss side of the lake, stands on stilts in the lake and is scaffolded. The fire department is therefore organising a floating platform.

Building in danger of collapsing

The building is in danger of collapsing. According to Schneider, it must be secured so that forensic experts can enter it safely to investigate the cause of the fire.

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The bathhouse is covered in scaffolding due to roof renovation work. Whether there is a connection between the construction work and the fire was not yet known on Monday morning, Schneider said.

The fire alarm was received by the cantonal emergency call centre at 3:30am. When the first emergency services arrived, the venerable building was already fully engulfed in flames, the police wrote in a statement. According to the police, no injuries are known.

Translated from German with DeepL/gw

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