It remains unclear how the massive fire could have started around 4:30am on Easter night at the site of a truck stop, or what exactly was in the burning warehouses.
In a major fire in a commercial area in Hamburg, several warehouses were set ablaze on Sunday morning. This resulted in a huge plume of smoke in the Rothenburgsort district, which moved towards the city centre. “Hamburg’s city center is completely dark,” a spokesman for the fire department said in the morning. According to initial reports, no one was injured.
However, the fire department warned about the smoke and asked residents to keep windows and doors closed and to turn off air conditioning and ventilation. An official alert says that the population “may be affected by smoke gases and chemical components in the breathing air due to a fire”. Rail traffic from Hamburg to the east was partially stopped during the extinguishing work. The fire brigade was initially unable to say how the massive fire started around 4.30am on Easter night or what exactly was in the burning warehouses.
Burning warehouses on Billstraße IMAGO/Joerg Boethling
When firefighters arrived, several parked vehicles, washing machines and other stored goods were on fire, and the fire had already spread to the building of a warehouse complex. Additionally, several so-called IBC containers burst onto the truck stop grounds. They contained flammable liquids. Initially, it was unclear what exactly the chemicals were.
“Extreme danger” for large parts of Hamburg
As the wind released a huge cloud of smoke over large parts of Hamburg’s city center and it was unknown what was stored in the warehouse complex and open space with a size of around 17,000 square meters, the highest alert level possible “extreme danger” was triggered for large parts of Hamburg. In addition, a hostel close to the fire site was evacuated. Reportedly, a total of 39 people were accommodated at the fire station’s academy in Billbrook.
Around 1pm, the police cleared everything. The official alert remains in effect but “no increase in readings is currently being detected”, the situation center said. According to the fire department, extensive measurements by the environmental service and the analytical task force of the technology and environmental protection guard, as well as the special forces of the volunteer fire department in the city area, showed no dangerous or harmful concentrations of gases. of fire in breathing air.
“This is an extraordinary and difficult mission”
“This is a really extraordinary and difficult operation,” said a spokesman for the fire department at the scene. He assumed that extinguishing work, which involved around 220 emergency services, would continue throughout the day. Only then can the police begin to investigate the fire. Initially, the fire area could only be accessed with breathing masks due to strong smoke development. Rothenburgsort is located east of the city center on the North Elbe and borders, among other things, Hafencity.
The fire also affected rail traffic. According to Deutsche Bahn, rail traffic between Hamburg and Büchen (Schleswig-Holstein) was interrupted for several hours due to the fire in the immediate vicinity of the line. This in turn meant that all IC, EC and ICE trains between Hamburg and Berlin had to be diverted and delayed by around 60 minutes. IC and ICE trains between Hamburg and Rostock have been canceled entirely.
(APA/DPA)