A hydrochloric acid leak from a truck caused a large-scale operation by the fire brigade, police and BRK on Monday evening.
40 residents were evacuated.
Now the police are investigating.
Hausham
– A tanker truck is parked on Schlierseer Straße in the immediate vicinity of Hausham train station.
An alert driver suddenly notices that liquid is leaking from the tank onto the road.
Hydrochloric acid, as the driver was to tell later.
White steam comes out.
Eyewitnesses report a "bestial stench" that caused headaches (we reported in a first report).
Then everything falls into place.
Sirens wail, the fire brigade, police and rescue services rush in – a total of over 300 men.
Emergency services in protective suits for hazardous substances approach the truck, and Schlierseer Strasse is cordoned off over a wide area.
Around 40 residents in the immediate danger area (radius between 50 and 100 meters) have to leave their homes and spend the night in surrounding hotels.
Red Cross helpers provide them with food and drink at the Hausham fire station beforehand.
With loudspeakers and later also via the relevant warning apps for smartphones, the population is advised to keep windows and doors closed.
Mayor organizes accommodation for evacuees
As reported by the Miesbach district office, the authority responsible for civil protection, the day after the accident, the driver's emergency call came in around 6:30 p.m. on Monday evening.
Since the damage situation and the extent of the hydrochloric acid accident were initially unclear and one had to assume that there was a limited danger to the population, the district's civil protection was informed at 7:12 p.m.
The operation management was then with District Fire Councilor Anton Riblinger.
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Situation briefing: emergency services from the fire brigade, BRK and police in exchange.
© Ralf Poeplau
Mayor Jens Zangenfeind spoke to our newspaper about a "very depressing and frightening situation".
"We knew that a lot of people live in the area around the station and that it is also heavily frequented by some restaurants." He himself had just been to a meeting of the main administrative committee in the town hall and was there accordingly quickly, reports Zangenfeind.
He accompanied the subsequent evacuations by the fire brigade and BRK and was very impressed by their cooperation: "It was incredibly impressive how courageously and professionally the operation was handled.
No hectic, but calm and level-headed professionalism.” The head of the town hall himself called the operators of the Zierer Stuben and the Schlierseer Hof to accommodate the evacuees.
Works fire brigade from Wacker Chemie from Burghausen
Meanwhile, the firefighters, with the technical support of experts from the transport accident information and assistance system (TUIS), the works fire brigade from Wacker Chemie in Burghausen, and the hazardous materials train from the city of Rosenheim, took care of binding the approximately 100 liters of spilled hydrochloric acid and refilling the remaining tank content with special pumps in a hazardous material container.
The firefighters also used a water mist to bind the steam in the air.
According to Riblinger, so strong until a harmless dilution was reached.
The truck remained at the site of the accident until early Tuesday morning, before a special company removed it at around 6:30 a.m.
Half an hour later, the station is released for trains again, and the rail replacement service that has been set up in the meantime ends.
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Decontamination zone: Here the emergency services were freed from hazardous material residues on their suits.
© Ralf Poeplau
According to the district office, it is now also clear that there has never been a health risk to the population.
The relief was all the greater after the initial moment of shock, reports District Administrator Olaf von Löwis.
The civil protection management "worked extremely well", as did the warning from the "NINA" app.
According to the district office, the fact that this only sounded the alarm at around 8.30 p.m. is due to the initially unclear situation.
Police are now investigating the background
It also remains unclear where the truck with Pfaffenhofen license plates should have delivered the hydrochloric acid and why the accident happened in the first place.
Both are the subject of the police investigation, emphasizes District Fire Councilor Riblinger.
However, he himself could not see any signs of external influence or an accident on site.
so called
At the end of January, emergency services with gas masks and orange protective suits attracted attention in Bayrischzell.
Here, too, a major alarm was triggered after a possible escape of hazardous substances.
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