Major fire in Hamburg darkens city center: chemical smoke and gases

In the northern German port city of Hamburg, two warehouses have been on fire since Sunday morning. The fire service warned of the danger of flue gases and chemical components in the air in the fire in the Rothenburgsort district.

In the morning, the smoke clouds moved towards the city center due to the current northeasterly wind. “The inner city of Hamburg is completely darkened,” says a spokesman for the Hamburg fire service. Rothenburgsort is located east of the city center on the Elbe and borders Hafencity, among other things.

The fire department could not initially say how the large fire on Easter night could have started or what exactly was in the burning warehouses. An official warning classified the fire and smoke development as “extreme danger”. In a large area in the northeast of Hamburg, residents were urged to keep windows and doors closed and protect themselves from the smoke.

Deutsche Bahn announced that the tracks between Hamburg and Büchen were closed due to the fire. Local traffic was also restricted by the fire service. The firefighting continued. (sda/dpa)