By Alina-Doreen Gröning and Isabel Pfannkuche
The fire in Grunewald. Hours after the fire broke out and well into the morning, there were repeated explosions. At least 25 tons of World War II ammunition and illegal fireworks were hoarded at the detonation site there, in the middle of the forest. How can that be?
The police detonation site in Grunewald has existed since 1950. The site was originally created because there were repeated fatal ammunition accidents in the post-war period. The costs for the Grunewald blast site amount to around one million euros per year. Archive photos of the BZ give an impression of the location.
Fences, barbed wire, an old watchtower – the area is cordoned off! On the site itself there are excavations to store the explosive devices or to detonate them in a controlled manner. explosive ordnance and illegal fireworks.
According to police spokesman Thilo Cablitz, there were around 25 tons of explosives on the square. Including a few hundred kilos of illegal fireworks, i.e. home-made pyrotechnics from private individuals, which were confiscated.
According to Cablitz, munitions and firecrackers are usually detonated twice a year — in the spring and fall at fixed times. Around 45 tons of material are detonated each time.
Fire brigade spokesman Klein said on Thursday morning: “There are different storage classes. The really large ordnance is stored in refrigerated steel containers under strict security conditions.”
Accordingly, in summer, when it is hot, it cannot be blasted due to the high risk of forest fires.
Early Thursday morning the devastating major fire. Due to the danger of explosions, the fire brigade has not yet been able to advance to the source of the fire. She has drawn a safety radius of 1000 meters around the detonation site.
In the afternoon, a remote-controlled special robot from the Bundeswehr will be used. Equipped with four cameras and a gripper arm, the robot can get closer to the area of the fire, Brigadier General Jürgen Karl Uchtmann said on Thursday. In this way, a clearer picture of the situation can be created.
The place is fenced and protected with barbed wire Photo: Charles Yunck
The fire brigade, meanwhile, is preparing for a long operation. The fire may keep the forces busy for the next few days, said fire department spokesman Thomas Kirstein. “But we will put out the fire.”
According to police chief Barbara Slowik, the cause of the fire is still completely unclear.
“We’re trying to get to the scene with the fire investigators as quickly as we can,” Slowik said on Thursday at the scene. Residents and the emergency services would have noticed clear detonations. “But what exactly was the cause now will be clarified by the fire investigators.”
Accidents again and again
It is not the first explosive incident at the Grunewald explosive site. There have been more accidents since the company was founded…
► 1957: The chief police officer and family man Werner Stephan (40) defuses a grenade. But a spark is created in the thread of the grenade, and the explosive device explodes. Stephan dies, two helpers are critically injured.
► 1991: After an explosion, a fragment is said to have flown over the 1000 meter safety limit.
► 1992: Explosives expert Peter Jung (54) wants to defuse a grenade. She blew up and the officer was hit in the chest by shrapnel.
War bombs lie in a hollow Photo: Charles Yunck
► September 1994: The policeman Rudi W. (58) burns out ammunition from the Second World War. The ammunition containing phosphorus suddenly explodes, and the 58-year-old suffers minor burns all over his body.
► October 1994: Another explosive device is detonated in a controlled manner. Another splinter strayed past the 1,000 meter safety limit and hit a truck in the windscreen. Nobody gets hurt.
► 2002: Two officers defuse a pipe bomb. You want to cut the pipe with a remote-controlled saw, but the saw blade gets stuck. If you try to loosen it with your hand, the bomb will explode. A police officer is injured.
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
► May 2004: The then Interior Senator Ehrhart Körting (80, SPD) claims that the Grunewald explosive site is safe. “There are no dangers, neither for the blocking forces nor for pedestrians, drivers, train passengers or passengers,” says Körting. Blasting, which had previously led to accidents, would no longer be carried out in this way.
► August 2004: The CDU parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives is calling for the detonation of the blast site. There is “still a certain residual risk for the population when carrying out the blasting work”.
► February 2005: The discussion about the decommissioning is over. A spokesman for Interior Senator Körting said: “A complete closure of the square is out of the question for us.”
How useful is a blast site in the forest?
A few hours after the fire broke out, the question arose as to how useful it would still be to have a detonation site in the forest, but then again.
Jan Thomsen, spokesman for the Senate Department for the Environment, Mobility, Consumer and Climate Protection, said: “We will deal with the safety issues once the cause of the fire has been clarified.”
The blast site: A deepening with sand, surrounded by the forest Photo: Charles Yunck
And a police spokesman only commented at noon that there had been repeated attempts to look for other locations. It is unclear why this has not worked until today.
(with dpa)