Fire
Major fire in Braunschweig industrial area: explosions
Smoke rises into the sky from a major fire in an industrial area in Braunschweig. photo
© Moritz Frankenberg/dpa
Thick, black smoke rises over an industrial area in Braunschweig. Explosions also occur in a major fire. There is a danger to life, warn the emergency services.
“There are no emergency services within a radius of 500 meters due to the risk of explosion,” said Christian Längle, spokesman for the Braunschweig fire department, in the afternoon. The smoke development is enormous. According to the fire department spokesman, there is also an underground tank with 29,000 liters of flammable gas on the site.
All clear from the police
Then the police gave the all-clear that evening. “There is no longer any danger to life,” said a police spokesman. According to him, the emergency services on site are currently not expecting any further explosions. The police also spread the all-clear via the short message service X, formerly Twitter. A total of two firefighters and three police officers were injured during the operation.
According to the operations manager of the company concerned, all employees got to safety in good time, said fire department spokesman Längle. Residents should close windows and doors. All buildings within a 500 meter radius were evacuated. Autobahn 39 was closed between Rautheim and Cremlingen, as was federal highway 1 and several state and district roads in the affected area.
The fire brigade initially fought the flames using several turntable ladders. “However, we were unable to contain the fire,” said the fire department spokesman. The approximately 200 emergency services then withdrew. “We have drones in use, but because of the heavy smoke, we can hardly see anything,” explained Längle.