A car crashes into a gas station on the A5. The system is on fire within a few seconds. The driver dies – and it could have been much worse.
Weiterstadt / Darmstadt – On the Autobahn 5 from Darmstadt to Frankfurt, a car crashed into a gas station on Monday morning and triggered a dangerous large fire.
Only the presence of mind of a cashier prevented a possible disaster at the Gräfenhausen Ost service station in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, as the police reported on Monday. The driver of the car was killed. The Darmstadt fire brigade was only able to report in the evening that the extensive extinguishing work had been completed. A fire watch should stay on site overnight to extinguish any embers that might flare up. The police continued to investigate the background to the incident.
Several gas pumps, a van and the roof of the facility had gone up in flames. The A5 was temporarily closed completely due to the heavy smoke in the direction of Frankfurt. There were significant traffic delays. It took until the afternoon for the emergency services to have the fire at the rest area completely under control.
The driver crashed into a girder of the roof structure at high speed for an initially unexplained cause. His car broke in two and caught fire within a few seconds. Whether it was a car accident, a medical emergency or a possible suicide by the man remained open at first. The fire spread to the roof of the gas station.
According to the police, the rest area narrowly escaped a fire: only “the quick and quick-witted action of the cashier could prevent worse,” said a spokesman. The employee of the gas station immediately put the system out of operation with the emergency stop switch. As a result, only the gasoline that was still in the pumps could ignite.
Up to 190 firefighters from across the region fought the flames for hours. Since there is only one hydrant at the rest area, according to the information, some of the extinguishing water had to be driven to the scene of the fire by tanker truck. “Fighting the fire in the roof area is extremely difficult,” reported a spokesman for the fire brigade.
In the afternoon, parts of the roof were removed with excavators in order to better access the fire. The volunteer fire brigades and works fire brigades from surrounding companies with special vehicles were also involved in the extinguishing work. dpa
