It’s been five weeks since there was a terrible bang in the middle of the night in the lobby of a Berlin hotel. At that time there were scenes that could have come from a disaster film with Roland Emmerich: A huge aquarium bursts, just like that, the panes of the 16-meter-high “Aquadom” in the Radisson Hotel burst, about a million liters of water pour out at once to the hotel lobby. The wave sweeps everything away, tables, chairs, doors. The water spills onto Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse with the debris and a school of hundreds of fish that later perish.
How the hell can something like this happen? That’s what many people in Berlin asked themselves on December 16th.
The clean-up work is still going on. The acrylic glass that surrounded the aquarium shattered into hundreds of small pieces. About half of these acrylic pieces have now been removed from the hotel lobby. “They are here in Heiliggeistgasse, they are documented, they are mapped so that you know exactly where they were ultimately found after the accident,” says Fabian Hellbusch, spokesman for the building owner.
The acrylic parts must be mapped individually during the cleanup.
(Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa)
The remaining, large acrylic parts are exactly where they fell almost five weeks ago. “The large elements will have to remain in the lobby for quite some time in order to be able to examine them properly,” explains Hellbusch. Then they would have to be transported away with heavy equipment.
It is fortunate that only two people were slightly injured when the aquarium burst in December. Hellbusch is also happy about it. For him, the picture on site is always shocking. “If you look at this, you’re always struck by a sense of dismay. The force of the events is still a little bit in our bones.”
More than a million liters of water caused huge damage in the building.
(Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa)
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. The owners of the building said in December that about 630 fish were rescued from the underground breeding tanks. Hellbusch is grateful to Zoo Berlin and the private aquarists who took in the fish. “They took great care of it.”
The cause of the accident is still not clear. Reviewers were consulted. It is difficult to determine the exact reason that led to the bursting of the aquarium, says Hellbusch. “Our experts say we’ll be able to find out at a very, very late point in time, or maybe not isolate an event at all.”
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.
Several shops were also destroyed.
(Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa)
The clean-up work has already made good progress, most areas are accessible again and many sources of danger have been eliminated. Nevertheless, some effort is still needed before the room looks like a hotel lobby again. When asked about a possible reopening of the hotel and a new building for the Aquadom, Hellbusch does not expect quick answers. “Until we know the cause of the accident, there is no point in thinking about a new Aquadome. Nobody in the world wants to take the risk.”