Emergency services taken by surprise Fire station has no fire alarm and burns down
In Stadtallendorf, Hesse, the fire station that opened in January has almost completely burnt down. The building had neither a fire alarm nor a fire detection system. No persons were injured.
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- In Stadtallendorf in the German state of Hesse, the new fire station has burned down completely.
- An explosion occurred in an emergency vehicle. All other fire engines then caught fire.
- The modern fire station, which opened in January 2024, had neither fire alarms nor a fire detection system.
The small town of Stadtallendorf has 22,000 inhabitants and a new fire station. Until recently. Because on Wednesday, the 16-million complex almost completely burnt out.
The fire broke out in an emergency vehicle, writes Der Spiegel. One of the volunteer fire department's equipment sheds was completely burnt out and all the vehicles inside were destroyed. It looks as if a bomb has gone off, describes Mayor Christian Somogyi (SPD) in Der Spiegel.
One disturbing finding that became known shortly after the fire: there was no fire alarm in the affected building, no fire detectors to trigger an alarm in the operations center and no surveillance cameras that could have alerted those responsible to the fire.
Waste container melted 50 meters away
When the new fire station opened in January 2024, Stadtallendorf's town fire inspector described it as a quantum leap for the municipality. Not least because Stadtallendorf itself, with its local industry, has the greatest hazard potential in the district.
Those responsible had obviously not thought about a fire in the fire station itself.
The mayor tells Der Spiegel that all vehicles are fully fueled with diesel and equipped with breathing apparatus with compressed air cylinders. Something had exploded in the first vehicle and within seconds the flames had spread to the other vehicles.
The fire department was called out in response to an alarm received by the central control center. When the firefighters stood in front of the fire station, the fire was already so intense that no one was allowed inside.
The only thing they could do was to prevent the flames from spreading to other buildings, the mayor continued. It was so hot 50 meters away from the source of the fire that waste containers had melted.
Mayor: All regulations complied with
According to the politician, all that remains of the new fire station is an office room and two parking spaces, which are located behind a fire protection wall.
Mayor Somogyi warns against jumping to conclusions because of the missing fire alarm system. The fire protection concept had been approved and adhered to. He considers it unlikely that the firefighters would have been on site so much earlier that they would have been able to do anything. The fire had spread too quickly.
No people were injured in the blaze. According to Hessenschau, the damage to property amounts to 20 million euros.