- Title: GERMANY: German town evacuated after gas explosion
- Date: 28th September 2013
- Summary: HARTHAUSEN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 28, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS FIRE ENGINES DRIVING INTO HARTHAUSEN SIGN READING (German) "HARTHAUSEN" EMERGENCY SERVICES AT A GATHERING POINT (SOUNDBITE) (German) HEAD OF DISTRICT AUTHORITY FOR RHINELAND-PALATINATE, CLEMENS KOERNER, SAYING: "According to eye witness accounts, it was a huge fireball which then went up and the vehicles and tank
- Embargoed: 13th October 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVALP2I246MGALAH6RQCDTF83WU
- Story Text: An entire village in Germany was evacuated early on Saturday (September 28) morning after a fire at a gas plant led to an explosion in which 16 fire-fighters were injured.
Some 3,000 residents of Harthausen near Ludwigshafen were asked to leave their homes and gather in safety away from Hoffmann Gastrans gas plant after the alarm was raised at 0422 local time (0222GMT).
The head of the district authority who was helping to co-ordinate the evacuation said a fire caused gas tanks at the plant to explode, sending a fireball into the air.
"According to eye witness accounts, it was a huge fireball which then went up," said Clemens Koerner.
Koerner added that fire-fighters who first went to the scene were injured by the explosion. Eight firefighters were being treated in hospital at 1400 local time (1200GMT).
"Vehicles and tanks in the area flew into each other and of course the fire brigade workers were the first to be flung to the ground by the force of the blast," he said.
The cause of the blast is not yet known, but police are investigating messages circulating on social networking sites that suggest arson.
Authorities evacuated all houses up to a distance of one kilometre away from the gas plant, as they tackled the fires and sealed off the area, fearing that other gas tanks might explode.
One resident, whose house is around 100 metres away from the gas plant, said was among the first to be asked to evacuate.
"We just ran, you can't imagine it - that was at 5am," Ursula Schmidt told Reuters TV in the evacuation centre, a sports hall in nearby Dudenhofen, where she and fellow residents had congregated. "My husband then said he wanted to go back into the house, I said I'm only going into the village - it could explode another few times. I was scared to death, you can't imagine it."
Around 450 members of the emergency services were involved in fighting the blaze and evacuating residents.
The area around the plant was still sealed off on Saturday evening, meaning residents will be spending the night away from their homes. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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