Specialized firefighting vehicles rolled into Berlin's Grunewald forest to take on a fire that presented a tricky challenge. Efforts to extinguish the fire at a munitions site were hampered as stored ordnance exploded.
Specialist military equipment like this repurposed tank had to be brought in in a bid to reach the site of the fire safelyImage: Christian Ender/dpa/picture alliance
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Berlin Grunewald threatened by fire and explosions
Berlin's Grunewald has been shaken by explosions, triggering a fire that threatened to burn out of control. The site: A munitions storage facility in a tinder-dry forest.
Image: Berliner Feuerwehr/picture alliance/dpa
Explosions in a dry forest
A police ammunition dump in a Berlin forest was shaken by explosions Thursday morning. After an especially long dry spell this summer, the forest was bone-dry and immediately caught fire.
Image: Berliner Feuerwehr/dpa/picture alliance
Ammunitions catch fire
Firefighters are still seeking to fully extinguish the blaze at Berlin's city ordnance disposal area this week, days after the fire broke out caused by an explosion at the site. The goal was to reduce the size of the area at risk, officials said, adding that the situation was stable but not yet fully under control. The wind is fanning the flames and spreading debris.
Image: Feuerwehr Berlin/TNN/dpa/picture alliance
Threat of further explosions
According to estimates, the fire department operation will continue for days with firefighters — using high-tech surveillance equipment — looking for still-smoldering embers. An initially affected area of some 1.5 hectares had spread to about 50 hectares (about 123 acres) on Thursday last week before firefighters were even able to get close enough to properly extinguish the fire.
Image: Berliner Feuerwehr
A site with a long history
Since 1950 this area in West Berlin has been used by Berlin's explosive ordnance service to store 25 metric tons of World War II ammunition, confiscated fireworks and other explosive ordnance. Controlled blasts are carried out there
twice a year.
Image: Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance/dpa
Heavy equipment
Armored vehicles were swiftly sent to the scene to deliver water and remove debris. Authorities are now trying to get a close look at the site itself, with help from robots.
Image: Paul Zinken/dpa/picture alliance
Motorways and trains affected
The Avus highway remains closed off, although the traffic around the area was meant to restart as soon as possible. Thomas Kirstein, the spokesman for the Berlin Fire Department, said "almost everything we have in terms of high-tech equipment in Germany has been deployed to the scene."
Image: Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance/dpa
Upscale district
The site of the fire is far from the nearest homes and no one had to be evacuated, but
authorities declared a 1,000-meter (more than half-mile) exclusion zone and the nearby AVUS highway and railway line remained closed on Friday.
Authorities react
The cause of the fire remains unclear. Berlin's governing mayor, Franziska Giffey, was quick to visit the scene on Thursday and announced her intention to start talks about a possible relocation of the explosives dump.
Image: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa/picture alliance
Too close for comfort
An explosion site in the middle of a popular recreation area — Berliners now realize that poses a problem. But any relocation would be high-risk, as the safe removal and transport of World War II ammunition is next to impossible.
Berlin's fire department deployed an array of specialized equipment to the forest, where a blaze tore through tinder-dry woodland.
Initial efforts to put out the fire had been hampered because of explosions at the site, on the edge of the German capital, where munitions were being stored.
How is the blaze being tackled?
Firefighters on Thursday set up a cordon of a kilometer (about half a mile) around the original fire, poised in ring formation to tackle the blaze as it spread.
Later in the day, the first work to tackle the blaze within the restricted area took place. Included in the list of equipment used to minimize risk and maximize firefighting efforts were armored vehicles and Bundeswehr tanks.
The fire spread rapidly after an explosion at the police munitions storage siteImage: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
Emergency vehicles were able to advance to within 500 meters of the ordinance site area.
The 200 by 200 meter compound is used by Berlin's explosive ordnance disposal service to store, defuse and detonate munitions — primarily those still being discovered to this day after World War II.
Before the vehicles went in, the site was checked from the air using drones, satellite imagery and helicopters. A thermal imaging camera was used to yield further clues into how the blaze could be tackled.
Firefighting efforts to continue throughout the day
The fire department has put into use "almost everything there is in Germany in terms of technology," said spokesperson Thomas Kirstein. Military experts and personnel are also on hand to provide help.
Kirstein said wildfires around the dump had been largely extinguished, with some 150 firefighters still on duty at the site on Friday morning. Firefighting efforts were expected to continue throughout the day.
Kirstein said an assessment was still being made as to how dangerous the situation is at the compound itself. This would determine whether firefighters could enter the area, and whether nearby closed rail lines and a stretch of highway known as the AVUS could be reopened.
The site was set up in Cold War-era West Berlin in 1950, with 25 metric tons or more of fireworks, World War II ammunition and other explosive ordnance had been stored there before the fire began.
