FOOTAGE has emerged showing the total loss of motorcycles at the Top Mountain Crosspoint Museum on the 18th of January, caused by the fire that erupted in the early hours of the morning.
There’s an unfortunate update to the Top Mountain Crosspoint story that we ran on the 18th of January. Unfortunately, as feared, Austrian authorities have confirmed that the museum was burnt to the ground with massive loss to its prestigious collection.
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Whilst local firefighters were quick to respond to the blaze, which ignited at around 4am local time, it was initially feared that little could be done to save the wooden built structure that sat at 2175 m on the Austrian alps. The blaze quickly spread across the entire museum, and all motorcycles would have been kept within the 3000 square-meter exhibition site.
Top Mountain Crosspoint Museum update
The museum was entirely lost along with its contents, and the recent video footage shows the great loss to motorcycling heritage.
The video, which we found on Facebook from a Karol Burger, shows the extensive damage to all 230 motorcycles - all motorcycles would clearly be a complete loss judging by what is shown. Among the collection in the highest altitude museum in Austria were vintage models from: MV Agusta, Zündapp, Matchless, Brough Superior, Sunbeam, Triumph, and more.
Fire chief Matthias Klotz was quoted:
“Within a few minutes, the structure was in full fire. Then we just concentrated on preventing the flames from spreading to the neighbouring buildings, which luckily succeeded. The restaurant was spared, the cable car station was slightly damaged by the smoke and the extinguishing water.”
We’re all absolutely gutted to see such tragic loss to motorcycling history, but it appears that the €23 million wooden museum structure was not fitted with sprinklers to combat any blaze from within. Luckily there was no loss to life, and the adjacent restaurant and cable car was somehow saved by firefighters. A caretaker attempted, in vain, to stop the blaze with a fire extinguisher, before firefighters were on scene to take over.
