accident
Burst aquarium: search for the cause between cylinder parts
The clean-up work is progressing. photo
© Jens Kalaene/dpa
It’s been almost exactly five weeks since the huge aquarium in a Berlin hotel burst. The clean-up work has progressed further – but many questions are still open.
In the hotel lobby, the smell of construction dust mixes with that of water and fish. With his eyes closed, he is reminiscent of the North Sea. But in the hotel near the Berlin Cathedral, it doesn’t look like a beach holiday at all. In the middle, pillars made of coral rock rise up, some plant remains are still hanging on them. The pillars were once inside the Aquadom large aquarium, which attracted many visitors. But the acrylic glass that actually encloses the columns is missing. The cylinder of the 16 meter high aquarium suddenly burst on December 16th.
Now, almost five weeks later, one can only guess what it must have looked like in the DomAquarée building on that day. About half of the acrylic glass elements – the slightly smaller ones – have already been mapped and cleared out, says Fabian Hellbusch, spokesman for the building owner. The remaining, large acrylic parts are exactly where they fell almost five weeks ago. “The large elements will certainly have to lie here in the lobby for quite some time in order to be able to examine them properly,” explains Hellbusch. “And then you need heavy equipment in order to ultimately be able to enable transport here and also to be able to go further into the detailed search.”
Looking at the panes, which are several centimeters thick, it seems to be a stroke of luck that only two people were slightly injured when the aquarium burst in December. For him, too, the picture on site is always shocking, says Hellbusch. “If you look at this, you’re always struck by a sense of dismay.” He was therefore very happy that there were only minor injuries. “The impact of the events is still a little bit in our bones.”
damage and chaos
The incident was less for the animals: almost all 1,500 fish in the aquarium died. Not much is left of them apart from the smell. According to the building owner, around 630 fish were rescued from the underground breeding tanks in December. Hellbusch is grateful to Zoo Berlin and the private aquarists who took in the fish. “They took great care of them and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them again,” he says. “I think without their help, the situation might look a little more complicated for us.”
Around a million liters of water had poured into the hotel and onto the street, among other places. Significant damage was caused, six shops were affected. The DDR Museum has since been closed. There were three main aisles through which the water pushed out, says Hellbusch. One of them leads past a restaurant. A coffee machine, a small fridge and glasses are still left of the place. Bottles of alcohol stand on the bar, which is cordoned off with red and white flutter tape, showing what was on sale here just a few weeks ago. In front of it are metal parts, chairs and cables.
However, parts of the chaos have already been eliminated after five weeks. “I think a lot has already been achieved: just all the clean-up work that has taken place, all the safety precautions that have been taken,” says Hellbusch. Many areas of the building are now accessible and many sources of danger have been eliminated. And yet: A lot of work is still needed before the lobby area of the hotel looks like a hotel again. “Normal operation looks different. I also ask for patience.”
The focus of the work is therefore currently three things: cleaning up, the damage documentation and the search for the cause. Especially with the latter, Hellbusch does not expect a quick answer. Of course, it would be nice to find an “initial cause,” he says. “But we are also very open about that, or our experts also say that we will find out at a very, very late stage or that we may not be able to isolate individual events at all.”
When asked about a possible reopening of the hotel and a new building for the Aquadom, Hellbusch does not expect quick answers. “Until we finally know the cause of the accident, it makes no sense to think about a new Aquadome. No one in the world wants to take the risk,” he says. But it is important that the hotel gets an anchor point again. “In that sense, we could somehow imagine other concepts.” But you will coordinate very closely with the hotel about the possibilities. “At the moment we are still open to all topics.”