GERMANY: GERMAN RAILWAYS SPOKESMAN SAYS MISSING SMOKE DETECTORS NOT A FACTOR IN FIRE WHICH CAUSED 12 DEATHS IN SLEEPING CAR OF GERMAN TRAIN

Record ID: 521325

  • Title: GERMANY: GERMAN RAILWAYS SPOKESMAN SAYS MISSING SMOKE DETECTORS NOT A FACTOR IN FIRE WHICH CAUSED 12 DEATHS IN SLEEPING CAR OF GERMAN TRAIN
  • Date: 6th November 2002
  • Summary: (W5) FRANKFURT, GERMANY (NOVEMBER 6, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. PAN FROM GERMAN RAILWAYS (DEUTSCHE BAHN) POSTER TO HANS-GUSTAV KOCH, DEUTSCHE BAHN BOARD MEMBER FOR MARKETING AND SALE SPEAKING TO JOURNALISTS IN LOBBY OF DEUTSCHE BAHN HEADQUARTERS IN FRANKFURT 0.07 2. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (German) HANS-GUSTAV KOCH, DEUTSCHE BAHN BOARD MEMBER FOR MARKETING AND SAL
  • Embargoed: 21st November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FRANKFURT, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA8R15TLQMSJ3KHBE5NXYUGBFCK
  • Story Text: A spokesman for German railways has said that missing
    smoke detectors aboard the burning Paris-Vienna express train
    "surely was not the problem" for the death of twelve
    passengers.



    Of what use would a smoke detector have been. We
    noticed the fire and the conductor did what he could although
    so far I have not been able to speak to the conductor,"
    Deutsche Bahn board member Hans-Gustav Koch told reporters in
    Frankfurt on Wednesday (November 6, 2002).

    Twelve people died of smoke inhalation as fire destroyed a
    German sleeping car on a Paris-Vienna express train, which
    rail workers stopped near the eastern French city of Nancy,
    according to local officials.

    Four of the dead were Germans, as were four of the nine
    passengers injured in the burning train, German railway
    Deutsche Bahn said in Berlin. Three Britons, one American and
    one French citizen were also among the injured, Nancy fire
    department said.

    Six men, five women and a child died in the fire, local
    police said. The victims were travelling in two German railway
    sleeper cars at the head of the train. Nancy railway staff
    saw smoke billowing from the first car as the train rumbled
    through the station around 2:15 a.m. (0015 GMT). They sounded
    an alarm and cut electrical power, bringing the train to a stop
    about one kilometre (mile) beyond the station. Fire and rescue
    squads quickly arrived to combat the blaze.

    In Frankfurt meanwhile, the spokesman for Deutsche Bahn
    painted a different picture.

    "We spoke to the conductor who told us that he was in the
    train car. He noticed the fire and contacted the French train
    driver," board member Hans-Gustav Koch told reporters.

    "Both then activated the emergency brake together and the
    train then was stopped," Koch said, in charge of marketing and
    sales.

    French police said the fire appeared to be caused by a
    short circuit in the trains electrical system. There were
    about 150 people on the train, which normally does not stop in
    Nancy.



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