Despite silent mode Alertswiss alarm wakes Zurich from sleep at 3 a.m.

On Sunday night, a fire broke out in a commercial building in Zurich's Kreis 11 district. One person was taken to hospital with suspected smoke inhalation.

A fire in a commercial building in Zurich Oerlikon not only called out local emergency services on Sunday night - it also set smartphones ringing throughout Switzerland and beyond.

The reason: shortly after 3 a.m., the Alertswiss warning app triggered what is known as a top-level alarm - including a piercing sound that is also played in "do not disturb" mode or when devices are muted.

The fire broke out in a vacant commercial building on Friesstrasse. The fire department emergency call was received by Zurich Protection & Rescue (SRZ) at around 2 am. Due to the extreme heat and heavy smoke, it was initially not possible to extinguish the fire inside the building. However, the emergency services prevented the flames from spreading to neighboring buildings. These were evacuated as a precaution.

One person who was near the scene of the fire was taken to hospital with suspected smoke inhalation. According to the LRC, no one was in the building at the time of the fire.

The all-clear was given at 7.44 am

The extinguishing work took several hours and proved to be exhausting. The emergency services used a crane to gain access to pockets of embers inside the building. The fire was finally extinguished by midday on Sunday. The roof was removed and thermal imaging cameras were used to check the temperatures in order to rule out any remaining sources of fire. The cause of the fire is still unclear and is being investigated by the municipal and cantonal police.

The warning via the Alertswiss app was originally aimed at the population in the Zurich North area. An unpleasant odor was spreading there due to the heavy smoke. The authorities asked residents to keep windows and doors closed and to switch off ventilation and air conditioning systems. The all-clear was given at 7.44 am.

However, the warning was spread much further than intended - which caused displeasure in many places. One blue News reader was annoyed: "It's all understandable if the alarm only went off in the vicinity of the fire ... but 50 kilometers away from it is very annoying." Even those who were not in Zurich but had selected the region in the app were woken up by the shrill sound. "I had palpitations - but I wasn't even in Zurich, I was on vacation," reports one reader.

Critical messages such as those from Alertswiss are emergency warnings of the highest level. On smartphones - whether iPhone or Android - they automatically trigger a loud alarm, even if the device is muted or in "do not disturb" mode. Such systems are designed to ensure that no one misses vital warnings - for example in the event of natural disasters, terrorist situations or major fires.