Four days after a fire broke out at a blast site in Berlin's Grunewald, the situation remains tense. The A115 motorway (Avus) remained closed on Monday, the fire brigade decided. Whether this is still necessary is checked several times a day in situation assessments, and there should be another assessment on Monday evening, said a spokesman. A release of the highway is not yet expected.
It will only be possible if the radius of the restricted area is further reduced from the current 550 meters. Initially it was 1000 meters.
Tons of old grenades
At the blasting site, where the police stored tons of old grenades, ammunition and confiscated fireworks, temperatures of 140 degrees still prevail in some areas, so there is still a risk of explosion, a spokesman said. The firefighters can therefore not enter the area. The hot ground and the ammunition lying around can only be cooled with a converted tank that can spray water and with extinguishing robots. Because the area is large, impassable, confusing and traversed by buildings and fences, this cooling with water is very difficult, it said.
In addition, there are still embers on the blasting site, the wind causes some places to flare up again. World War II bombs and numerous large cartridges were scattered everywhere by the explosions on Thursday night. If an explosive device explodes, parts of it could injure people or be thrown onto the highway, according to the fire department.
The areas would have to be cooled to below 60 degrees in order to ban the risk of explosion, the explosives experts had ordered, it said. The spokesman said there had probably never been a comparable deployment of a fire brigade in post-war Germany. A total of around 250 emergency services were on site on Monday.
Police investigating possible arson
According to previous knowledge, the fire broke out on Thursday night at the blast site, the cause is not yet known. The police want to clarify whether it was arson. There were explosions because of the stored ammunition and ordnance. The railway line, which runs parallel to the motorway but at a slightly greater distance from the forest fire, was also initially closed. Trains have been running here again since Saturday.
In view of the events, there is debate as to whether the explosive site, which has existed since 1950, is in the right place.
A flock of sheep was also brought to safety, as the fire department tweeted – bringing relief to many animal lovers.
