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Giant Aquarium In Berlin Burst, Injuring 2 People
(CTN NEWS) – According to emergency officials, a massive aquarium in Berlin that contained 1,500 rare fish has ruptured, dumping 1 million liters of water and other materials onto a busy road in the Mitte neighborhood.
A total of 100 emergency personnel flocked to the location, a recreational complex that included a Radisson hotel.
A museum, and what Sea Life Berlin claimed to be the largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium in the world at the height of 14 meters.
A 46-ft-tall aquarium in the lobby of a Berlin hotel burst open on December 16, injuring two people and sending 264,000 gallons of water crashing through the lobby and into the street — along with approx 1,500 dead tropical fish. pic.twitter.com/38T7v1lHrt
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) December 16, 2022
When the aquarium ruptured on Friday, Naz Masraff, a guest at the hotel, said, “It felt like an earthquake.”
Sandra Weeser, a different hotel visitor, described the mayhem.
“What’s left is destruction after the aquarium as a whole burst. Large numbers of dead fish, detritus, “She spoke.
Emergency services urged 350 hotel guests to pack their stuff and leave because they were worried there would be structural damage after glass shards hurt two people.
According to Mayor Franziska Giffey, the tragedy unleashed a “true tsunami” of water, but the early morning time spared many more victims.
Durch die #Spezialkräfte der #Höhenrettung konnten aus dem oberen Konstruktionsbereich des geborstenen Aquariums noch mehrere Dutzend lebende Fische gerettet werden. Aktuell laufen die Pumparbeiten sowie die Beseitigung der Trümmerteile. Übergabe der #Est an @polizeiberlin, @THW pic.twitter.com/IDAm2Bhk5i
— Berliner Feuerwehr (@Berliner_Fw) December 16, 2022
We were still quite fortunate, despite all the destruction, she continued
If the aquarium had exploded even an hour later when more people would have been awake and around the hotel and the surrounding neighborhood, she claimed, “we would have suffered horrible human damage.”
Before the tragedy, the AquaDom was reportedly the largest cylindrical tank in the world and contained over a thousand tropical fish.
The blue tang and clownfish, two vivid species made famous by the well-known animated film Finding Nemo, were among the 80 different kinds of fish.
Mayor Giffey stated that none of the 1,500 fish could be salvaged.
„Wenn das alles nicht um 5.45 Uhr, sondern nur eine Stunde später passiert wäre. Dann müssten wir nun über furchtbare menschliche Schäden berichten.“ @FranziskaGiffey in ihrem ersten Statement nach dem Unfall am Morgen. #Aquarium. via @morgenpost pic.twitter.com/HcXV7Phy12
— Julian Würzer (@wurzer_julian) December 16, 2022
The ground level of the building was too strewn with debris for responders to enter, so search and rescue dogs combed the area, but they were unable to locate any casualties, the Berlin fire service reported on Twitter.
According to a fire department spokesperson who talked to Reuters, the exact reason for the AquaDom aquarium’s explosion is yet unknown.
It was believed that the acrylic glass tank exploded because of a crack brought on by the overnight subzero temperatures, which caused it to crack under the weight of the water.
Police claimed there was no proof the incident resulted from malicious activity.
‘ASTONISHING DESTRUCTION’
In a statement, Sea Life Berlin said its staff was surprised by the occurrence and attempted to speak with the AquaDom’s owners to learn more about what had transpired.
The business, which had previously provided glass elevator rides inside the AquaDom aquarium, said it would also be closed indefinitely.
There had been “unbelievable maritime damage,” the police claimed on Twitter.
On Friday afternoon, work was being done to preserve an additional 400–500 smaller fish in aquariums under the hotel lobby.
Officials claimed that without electricity, their tanks were not getting the oxygen they needed to thrive.
Almut Neumann, a city official in charge of environmental concerns for Berlin’s Mitte area, told the German news agency dpa, “Now it’s about evacuating people rapidly.”
The Berlin Zoo was one of many organizations that offered to take the remaining fish.
The aquarium turned into a “death trap” for the fish kept inside, the animal rights organization PETA tweeted on Thursday.
They wrote, “This man-made catastrophe demonstrates that aquariums are unsafe for fish and other aquatic creatures.
They were all likely confused & frightened when they died—hurled from the water & left to suffocate or freeze to death.
Fish aren’t wallpaper, they should never be confined like this. https://t.co/zNH92aT4m5
— PETA (@peta) December 16, 2022
Due to the significant amount of water that had spilled out of the structure, emergency officials had to close a key road near to the complex that runs from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate.
The DomAquaree complex’s website states that the aquarium had its most recent renovation in 2020.
The fish were transferred to aquariums in the building’s basement, where there is a breeding facility for the fish, during the upgrading work, which involved draining the tank of all its water.
A real estate fund run by Union Investment owns DomAquaree and the AquaDom aquarium.
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