Explosions, white smoke, disrupted transport… A fire broke out in Berlin’s largest forest on Wednesday August 3, a very unusual event, from a police ammunition depot. The Berlin sky took on very unusual appearances heart of summer, with wisps of white smoke visible over Grunewald. At regular intervals, explosions sounded in the morning of Thursday.
NEW – Forest fire rages after explosion at police blast site in Berlin’s Grunewald forest.pic.twitter.com/2nlZ0BqPC3
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 4, 2022
“The fire is still not under control and continues to spread, the situation is totally unusual because we have munitions of war” on the site, which prevent relief from being deployed, Thomas Kirstein, spokesperson for the Berlin fire department, told AFP on Thursday. A security zone of one km around the place of storage of ammunition has been set up. Firefighters, 120 in total, are positioned around.
“The fire spread over an area of 15 000 square meters, first on a police ammunition and explosives storage and defusing site, then in the surrounding forest”, according to firefighters. This depot, installed in Grunewald, is responsible for carrying out controlled explosions of devices entrusted to it, including bombs from the Second World War, still a legion to be buried in the Berlin basement.
Yesterday sieht man die Explosionen im Grunewald. Aufgenommen vom Dach des Corbusierhauses in Westend von Haustechniker Michael von Rein. #blast #Berlin #grunewald pic.twitter.com/vA8Q93zsDk
— rbb 88.8 (@rbb88acht) August 4, 2022
It is very rare that the German capital is the victim of such fires. But with the drought affecting all of Europe, it is increasingly threatened due to the importance of its wooded areas, a particularity of this metropolis of 4 million inhabitants. Berlin has 29,000 hectares of forest, making it one of the most forested capitals in the world. Much of it is now dry.