Subject:An 8-Alarm Fire in Hamburg, Germany, Burned Down a Warehouse
Date
of Email report:Wed 04/01/2012
Report Detail:
AN 8-ALARM FIRE IN HAMBURG, GERMANY, BURNED DOWN A WAREHOUSE filled with 10,000 litres of heating oil and 2,000 tons of raw rubber and latex storage. There were also 20 propane cylinders used for powering forklift trucks that blew up in the fire. The fire started Monday afternoon and burned until Tuesday morning when the entire building and contents burned down. It is not yet know what started the fire The fire coupled with the water and foam used to extinguish it created a sea of molten rubber that covered all the ground surface for hundreds of feet around the ruins of the 3,000 sq. meter warehouse. The sticky "gunk" flowed and then re-solidified on the roads and fire equipment on the scene. Altogether, 500 sections of fire hose, at least 150 sets of PPE and 200 SCBA's were ruined and will have to be discarded Approximately 20 fire trucks were coated and nearly ruined. They were cleaned up as much as possible on the spot until the rubber hardened and will be towed to a specialist cleaning firm who will try and restore them to service. The streets in the area will probably have to be dug up and re-paved. This was one of the Hamburg FD's largest operations in recent history. There were 300 fire-fighters from 35 of the city's 87 fire companies working the blaze and with rotations a total of 600 fire-fighters were at the scene at one time or another.
