Fire department and police had initially been alerted around 10.45 o'clock to a fire in a multi-family house on the street Auf dem Patt. As it turned out the cause of the alert was overheated food on the stove. Nobody was hurt, as Michael Hesse, employment leader and press speaker of the fire-brigade Alfter communicated. The owner of the dwelling, which lives opposite the building concerned, had noticed the smoke rising and had entered the rented dwelling. He took the pot from the stove top and put it on the balcony, the fire department only had to ventilate the apartment.

However, a motorist "massively hindered" the firefighters, according to the police incident commander. The man wanted to drive through the danger zone and thus through the vehicles of the fire department. He had demanded that all vehicles should go away, the policeman said.

The firefighters then tried to calm the man down and stop him. When this did not succeed, the police intervened. But the motorist still did not show understanding. "The road user was considerably intractable, verbally aggressive and then he also physically resisted," the officer in charge said. The police officers finally handcuffed the man and temporarily arrested him for disrupting an official act. One police officer was slightly injured.

The emergency vehicles could neither drive forward nor backward because of the behaviour by the motorist, the police explained. Residents had then moved their vehicles so that the emergency services could continue to do their work. The fire department did not comment on the arrested man. "This is a police matter," Hesse said.

(Original text: Alexander Hertel and Axel Vogel/Translation: Mareike Graepel)