In the middle of Berlin, a major fire is raging at a police storage facility for explosives. The forest fire is spreading in the direction of the Avus Autobahn. The Grunewald news ticker.
- Forest fire now threatens Autobahn : Fire spreads towards Avus.
- Twitter video shows dangerous use: fire brigade had to withdraw from the ammunition depot in Grunewald.
- Bundeswehr moves in: The army sends engineer tanks to fight the fire.
- This news ticker about the major fire in Berlin’s Grunewald forest is continuously updated.
Update from August 4, 4:50 p.m .: Berlin’s governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) sees no need for evacuations despite the ongoing fire in Grunewald. “There is no personal injury to complain about,” said the SPD politician on Thursday after visiting the scene of the fire. “There is no need for evacuation of population,” she said. “We experienced that differently in Brandenburg, where entire villages had to be evacuated. That is not the case here because nobody lives within a radius of two kilometers.”
Giffey said the fire in Grunewald was an event that was unique in Berlin’s post-war history. The Governing Mayor interrupted her vacation to get an idea of the situation on site. It’s been burning there and around the Berlin police detonation site since the early hours of the morning. The cause of the fire is still unclear. A video shared by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) on Twitter, among others, shows a violent detonation in the morning hours.
A security zone has been set up within a radius of 1000 meters around the blasting site. “The bottom line is that we manage to narrow that safety circle, manage to keep the fire from going beyond that,” Giffey said. “I am very grateful that we are doing this in an interdisciplinary manner, i.e. together with the Bundeswehr and in close cooperation with the Berlin police and Berlin fire brigade,” said the Governing Mayor.
Forest fire now threatens Autobahn: Fire spreads towards Avus
Update from August 4, 4:15 p.m .: The Berlin fire brigade is preparing for the fire in Grunewald to spread. “We found that the fire continued in the restricted area,” said fire department spokesman Thomas Kirstein on Thursday. “We saw that the fire was already moving towards Avus. This can now be expected in the next few hours.” It can be assumed that the fire will continue to spread and that the smoke will also increase. The Avus in southwest Berlin is used as the northern section of the A 115 autobahn.
“We’ve pushed forward with all our might, but that’s a drop in the bucket,” Kirstein said. It is about being able to reduce the restricted area around the Berlin police blast site so that the fire brigade can get closer to it to extinguish it. So far, a safety radius of 1000 meters applies. There has been a fire on and around the blast site since the early hours of the morning.
Fire brigade starts extinguishing work: Bundeswehr uses special robots
Update from August 4, 3:05 p.m .: The fire brigade has started extinguishing the major fire in Berlin’s Grunewald. As a fire department spokesman explained early Thursday afternoon, two water cannons were used to extinguish the fire. A remote-controlled special robot from the Bundeswehr is also used. Equipped with four cameras and a gripper arm, the robot can get closer to the area of the fire, explained Brigadier General Jürgen Karl Uchtmann.
In addition, a police helicopter and a drone fly over the area. All of this should help the emergency services to get a clearer picture of the situation. Meanwhile, the emergency services in the capital cannot hope for fire-fighting helicopters from the Bundeswehr. As the authorities announced, these are not available because of the forest fires on the border between Saxony and the Czech Republic. Most recently, three NH90 Bundeswehr helicopters were involved in the extinguishing work in Saxon Switzerland.
Twitter video shows dangerous use: fire brigade had to move away from the ammunition depot in Grunewald
Update from August 4, 2:45 p.m .: A video on Twitter shows the dangerous operation for the Berlin fire brigade in the night from Wednesday to Thursday, when the large fire broke out in an ammunition depot and the adjacent police detonation site in the Grunewald forest.
Journalist Alexander Fröhlich from the Tagesspiegel posted this on social media. It shows how the fireworks literally fly around the ears of the first emergency services on site. For safety reasons, the fire brigade had to withdraw its units in a corridor of almost one kilometer because explosive ordnance ammunition is stored on the site in addition to illegal fireworks. According to a police spokesman, some of the “munitions of war” that have been disposed of are also stored there. These are about defused duds from the Second World War.
Bundeswehr moves in: The army sends engineer tanks to fight the fire
Update from August 4th, 2:25 p.m .: In Berlin-Grunewald the Bundeswehr has now also arrived because of the major fire in the city forest there. Specifically: The army delivered a so-called “Dachs” armored engineer vehicle to the edge of the upscale district, which lies between the large district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and the Wannsee and the Havel river.
The Berlin Olympic Stadium is also located a little north of the forest. The Bundeswehr’s “Dachs” armored engineer vehicle was last used in the forest fire in Saxon Switzerland. The tank, which is based on the Leopard 1 chassis, can, among other things, clear obstacles with a clearing blade at the front. In Saxony, his job was to cut aisles in the forest floor so that the flames could not spread further. A large and massive backhoe also makes it possible to dig pits with the vehicle for the same purpose. The armor in turn protects the crew, which is not insignificant given the fire in the Berlin police ammunition depot.
Fireworks and ammunition from World War II: According to the police, 25 tons were stored on a detonation site
Update from August 4th, 1:37 p.m .: In Grunewald, it continues to burn brightly around a blast site. According to the police, around 25 tons of fireworks or World War II ammunition, among other things, are stored at the detonation site. Controlled demolitions are scheduled there twice a year for several days, a police spokesman said on Thursday. There have been repeated attempts to look for other locations. Residents and emergency services had reported significant detonations.
Update from August 4, 1:09 p.m .: According to police chief Barbara Slowik, the cause of the fire in Berlin’s Grunewald is still completely unclear. “We’re trying to get to the scene with the fire investigators as quickly as we can,” Slowik said on Thursday at the scene. Residents and the emergency services would have noticed clear detonations. “But what exactly was the cause now will be clarified by the fire investigators.”
Fire after explosions in Berlin: extinguishing the fire continues to be difficult
Update from August 4, 12:26 p.m. According to their own statements, the fire brigade has now identified three to four embers from the air. “But we can’t fight them yet because they are in this danger area,” said a fire department spokesman for the n-tv broadcaster. Because of the risk of explosion, the fire brigade has drawn a blocking circle of around 1000 meters around the fire. A water supply has now been established around this radius. Should the flames approach these areas, they could be fought quickly.
The radius could last beyond noon, possibly even into the evening, it said. A Bundeswehr armored clearing vehicle and a robot could soon approach the detonation site and should give the emergency services a better overview from the ground.
Update from August 4, 11:58 a.m .: It burns and burns in Grunewald. The fire brigade cannot extinguish the fire. The explosive material at the police blast site makes it impossible to get close to the fire. Hours after the fire broke out, cracking noises could still be heard from the direction of the blast site on Thursday morning.
Update from August 4, 11:15 a.m .: The emergency services in the fire in Berlin’s Grunewald cannot count on a Bundeswehr firefighting helicopter. Such is currently not available due to the forest fire in Saxony, said a fire department spokesman on Thursday in Berlin. A police helicopter, on the other hand, was in action in the morning and was initially concerned with giving the forces an overview from the air. Meanwhile, the fire continues to burn unabated.
Fire after explosions in Berlin: Autobahn Avus will probably remain closed all day
Update from August 4, 10:22 a.m .: The Avus motorway in Berlin is expected to remain closed all day due to the fire in Grunewald. The extinguishing work was difficult, said the police and fire brigade on Thursday morning. Regional and S-Bahn services to the west were also interrupted. The forest continues to burn uncontrollably on around one and a half hectares, said a fire department spokesman.
Fire after explosions in Berlin: S7 and Avus motorway closed
Update from August 4th, 9.40 a.m .: The Bundeswehr is also used in the fire in Berlin’s Grunewald. As a spokesman for the fire brigade said, there are still large explosions on the square. Currently, the emergency services have withdrawn to 1000 meters. There are 100 firefighters and police officers on site. Other forces and special forces of the Bundeswehr are requested.
The railway announced on its website that both regional and long-distance traffic were interrupted. The S7 doesn’t work either. The Avus motorway, Kronprinzessinnenweg and Havelchaussee are closed in this area. Residents should keep windows and doors closed – ventilation and air conditioning should be turned off. “We are currently in the consultation and observation phase,” the spokesman said.
Mega fire in Berlin after explosions at the blast site – “steel beams weighing tons flown around the ears”
First report from August 4, 2022:
Berlin – Explosions at a police detonation site have triggered a large-scale operation by the fire brigade in Berlin’s Grunewald. A spokesman for the Berlin fire brigade told the AFP news agency that there was a fire in an area of 15,000 square meters on the blasting site and in the adjacent forest. Due to ongoing explosions at the blasting site, the fire brigade have not yet been able to start extinguishing.
Berlin: ordnance and fireworks stored – “The situation is unclear”
Ordnance and fireworks were stored at the police detonation site, the spokesman said. “The situation is unclear. The forest continues to burn uncontrollably.” He called on the population to avoid the area as far as possible. According to the picture , the first alarm was at 3:30 a.m. The first emergency services reported “steel beams weighing tons that blew up in their faces there”. A fire department spokesman told ntv.
120 firefighters are on site and a police helicopter is being used to assess the situation, the spokesman said. The fire brigade is now preparing a so-called locking position. The aim is to fight the fire at a distance of 1000 meters from the blast site. The firefighters cannot get any closer so as not to endanger themselves from further explosions. The numerous explosions can be clearly heard on a Twitter video.
Explosions in Berlin: Office warns the population of forest fires and fire gases
The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance declared early in the morning that “the forest and a storage facility for ammunition found by the Berlin police” were on fire. “Explosion noises and nuisance from fire gas are to be expected.” According to the police, it is not yet clear how the fire started. The extreme heat and drought could spread the fire further and also cause problems for the emergency services. (md with afp)
