Six days after a fire broke out at an explosion site in Berlin’s Grunewald, emergency services expect significant progress in extinguishing work. The Fire Department therefore considered it conceivable on Wednesday morning that the block of the A15 (Avus) motorway, which is about 500 meters from the explosion site, could be lifted during the day.
“Our big goal is to release Avus on Wednesday,” a spokesperson said. But that depends on the success of the quenching and cooling work at the blast site. Since the fire broke out in Grunewald last Thursday, the major highway has been closed for about seven miles between the Zehlendorf junction and the Funkturm highway triangle.
On Wednesday, two Federal Police firefighting helicopters were to be used to fight the fire, which had flown over Grunewald for the first time the day before. The announcement was made by firefighters after a new briefing from the emergency services. At first, it was said that the helicopters would not be available on Wednesday because they were needed for the bushfires in Saxony. Now, at least in the morning, they must pour water over the embers and around the blast site.
According to the fire brigade, there is still a risk of explosion of ammunition and other ammunition because it is still very hot at the explosion site. Therefore, according to firefighters, emergency services were unable to penetrate the site. On Tuesday, the fire brigade discovered that the forest south of the blast site was also relatively contaminated with ammunition that had been dropped by the blasts.
At the blast site, where police stored 30 tons of old grenades, World War II bombs, ammunition and confiscated fireworks, a raging fire broke out on Thursday night. The cause is not yet known. Numerous explosions could be heard. In the days that followed, isolated explosive devices exploded.
Due to the danger to life and limb, emergency services have so far only been able to extinguish the area from a distance and cool it with water. A fire fighting tank and a fire fighting robot were used. Since Tuesday, the two Federal Police firefighting helicopters are also helping. They get their water from nearby Havel. A third helicopter examines with the help of thermographic cameras the successes that the whole thing brings on the ground.
The situation in the wildfire area of Saxon Switzerland is also slowly but steadily improving. “In another area, emergency services were able to report ‘fire’. It’s progressing,” Thomas Kunz of the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district office said Wednesday at the request. In five other areas, however, there are still embers that need to be fought.
The spokesperson could not provide the exact number of emergency services for Wednesday. In recent days there were about 800. The operational area also covers an area of about 150 hectares, which corresponds to the size of about 210 football fields.