Hamburg was shrouded in thick smoke at Easter. The reason was a major fire on the premises of a car dealer in the Rothenburgsort district, which broke out early Sunday morning. This resulted in a huge cloud of smoke that drifted towards the city centre. On Easter Monday it was still not completely deleted.
According to initial findings, one person was injured: a volunteer firefighter stepped on a nail while extinguishing the fire, said a fire department spokesman on Easter Monday.
Authorities warned of the smoke and urged residents on Sunday to keep windows and doors closed and turn off air conditioning and ventilation. The warning was only lifted entirely on Monday afternoon. According to the fire brigade, measurements by the fire brigade and environmental authorities had already shown no harmful concentrations of fire gases in the air in the city area on Sunday.
Still minor burns
The fire on the 17,000 square meter site was still not completely extinguished on Monday. The situation is easing, but there are still small fires, said the fire department spokesman. You can’t get to everywhere because some hotspots are under collapsed roofs.
However, the number of emergency services has already been greatly reduced, from 220 at the top to around 60 on Monday afternoon. The fire department spokesman assumed that the number could be reduced to 30 by the evening. It should be decided in the evening whether some firefighters have to stay at the scene of the fire overnight to be on the safe side.
The major fire destroyed several warehouses. There was no information about the amount of damage or the cause of the fire. Early on Sunday morning, the warehouse complex of a car dealer in the Rothenburgsort district was on fire. According to the police on Sunday, the fire initially ignited on vehicles, washing machines and other stored goods outdoors. Several so-called IBC containers then burst on the site because they contained flammable liquids.
Local and long-distance traffic in the east of the city was restricted for several hours due to the fire. A hostel near the scene of the fire was evacuated. According to the information, 39 people were accommodated at the fire academy in Billbrook.
Rothenburgsort is located to the east of the city center on the North Elbe and borders, among other things, on Hafencity.