Dead Obese Woman Set Building On Fire During Her Cremation

Austrian crematorium officials have blamed a deceased woman's obesity for causing a blaze which had to be tackled by firefighters.

Firemen in the southern city of Graz were covered in thick sticky soot as they tried to prevent the blaze from taking hold of the building.

The case has been widely reported in Austrian media, including in the ORF - the country's equivalent of our BBC - and has ignited calls for a weight limit on bodies to protect against future fires.

Firemen whose clothing was left covered with a layer of sooty grease were snapped as they tackled the difficult to extinguish blaze in special breathing gear to avoid inhaling the fumes.

Some countries such as Switzerland and the UK already have facilities which cater for extra large bodies, in line with the growing trend of expanding waistlines.

Speaking to the Daily Mail online, funeral director Christea Bogdan, of Gillman Undertakers, Tooting, south London, said he had never before in his career heard of such an event.

'I have never come across such a case,' he said.

An expert report on the Austria fire has revealed that the woman being cremated weighed more than 200kg - or 31st 7lbs - and her size had caused the oven to overheat.

Graz-based fireman Otto Widetschek said: 'Crematorium officials need to be more responsible and not just automatically put everybody in to be cremated.'

He said that in Switzerland there were moves now to make sure that XXL bodies were routinely shipped to a special crematorium able to deal with the extra heat caused by larger bodies.

Source: Dailymail