Source: MTI/EPA/Dominick Waldeck
Firefighters put out a warehouse fire in Hamburg’s Rothenburgsort district on April 9, 2023.
The official alert warning of the danger has not yet been lifted, but the authorities “currently do not detect elevated values”, the police said.
In a statement, the fire department reported that, according to their measurements, there is no dangerous or harmful gas concentration in the air. In the past, the city center of Hamburg was also covered in thick smoke, but this has largely dissipated since then.
The fire broke out at dawn in the Rothenburgsort district, near the Elbe River, in the area of a vehicle depot. In addition to the vehicles and other machines stored there, a warehouse also caught fire.
Containers used to store liquids and powders were also damaged in the fire, and since it was not known what they contained, it was feared that toxic chemicals had also been released.
Representatives of the fire department previously told the German regional public radio station NDR that there is a risk that poisonous, highly toxic hydrogen sulfide has entered the air. Firefighters were also only allowed to work on the scene in breathing apparatus.
More than two hundred disaster prevention specialists took part in extinguishing the fire and repairing the damage, which lasted all day. The police can only start investigating the cause of the fire after the fire has been extinguished
During the day, the German railway company was forced to reroute or cancel several regional train services due to the huge smoke.
