Millions in damage in a fire in the truck center in Aschheim

Created: 08/07/2022 10:32 am

By: Günter Hiel

Large-scale operation for the fire brigade (symbol image) © IMAGO/Klaus Martin Höfer

Around one million euros in damage occurred on Saturday night when two trucks caught fire on the premises of a service and sales center in Aschheim.

One of the two trucks was an electric vehicle, the batteries had to be cooled for hours at great expense.

Aschheim

– On Saturday at 1:29 a.m., the alarm was received by the Aschheim volunteer fire brigade: “Two trucks on fire” on Hermann-Hesse-Strasse.

When the fire brigade arrived, smoke and the glow of fire could be seen behind a workshop building.

The emergency services had to use force to gain access to the site via a side entrance, reports the Aschheim volunteer fire brigade.

Articulated lorry is on fire - electric garbage truck is also on fire

The picture of the situation: a semi-trailer truck was on fire, and the flames had already spread to a garbage truck on the right and a semi-trailer on the left.

A tractor unit behind the garbage truck also threatened to burst into flames.

Several explosions force firefighters to take cover

Several explosions were heard just before the main driveway opened.

The fire brigade initially had to assume that it was compressed gas tanks on the truck, so the forces had to retreat behind the building.

During further investigation measures, the explosions turned out to be continuous cells of a high-voltage battery of the burning electric garbage truck.

Aschheim and Kirchheim fire brigades on duty

The Kirchheim fire brigade came in with 19 forces to reinforce the situation.

The Aschheimer were deployed with 42 forces, led by Aschheim's commander Florin Gebauer.

The fire brigade received air support from a police helicopter, which checked the surrounding area with a thermal imaging camera in order to identify any embers.

Batteries had to be cooled for more than three hours

At 2:38 a.m., “fire out” was finally reported.

"However, a further three hours and 15 minutes had to be taken to cool the two high-voltage batteries - out of a total of four - that were damaged but not ruptured, using a C-pipe and a hydroshield," says the fire brigade, describing the operation.

The storage tanks would have reacted strongly at the beginning if the cooling measures were briefly interrupted for control purposes.

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Control measurements of the battery temperature

At around 4.55 a.m. the cooling could be permanently reduced for the first time.

Four measuring points were then defined, which were checked for heat development at five-minute intervals using a thermal imaging camera and remote thermometer.

The measurements over a period of one hour showed a maximum increase in temperature of only 19 degrees, to a maximum of 35 degrees, after the first 35 minutes.

Mission ended at 6 a.m

The attempt by a high-voltage storage specialist from the Aschheim fire department and a high-voltage technician to remove the intact battery had to be stopped due to poor accessibility.

However, all four high-voltage storage units could be separated from the system.

It wasn't until 6 a.m. that it was all over, reports the fire brigade operations center.

The police are investigating the cause of the fire, estimating the damage at around one million euros.