After the fire accident at a carnival parade in Kehl, Baden-Württemberg, with seven people injured, Mayor Wolfram Britz praised the behavior of participants. “The members of the group of fools reacted very prudently and thus probably prevented something even worse,” said the non-party local politician to the German Press Agency.
According to police reports, a man was seriously injured and six people suffered serious injuries in the carnival car fire on Sunday. “The news of this tragic incident spread quickly along the parade route. Of course, we stopped the parade immediately,” reported Britz. There were tens of thousands of people on the streets.
The incident was unprecedented, Britz said. “There has never been such an accident in Kehl.” Around 37,000 people live in the border town, and the eastern French metropolis of Strasbourg is on the other side of the Rhine.
There was an explosion
In the early afternoon, dramatic scenes took place in the center of Kehler: in the middle of the crazy hustle and bustle, a detonation was heard. To save themselves from the flames, several people who were on the trailer of the parade van of a carnival group from the Black Forest town of Glottertal jumped onto the street.
Britz said he had spoken to members of the group of fools and later asked the hospital about the injured. “Our thoughts are with the injured – we very much hope that they will recover completely soon.”
“The parade was in full swing when I learned from the stands on the market square that a carnival float had caught fire at the beginning of the parade route,” said the town hall boss. “I set off immediately. When I arrived at the scene of the accident, a good kilometer away, our fire department had already extinguished the fire and the injured were being treated by the rescue service and emergency doctor.”
According to the city, the fire broke out in the interior of the car, which represented a ship. The moving truck was badly damaged. The city announced that the man who was seriously injured in the fire was flown to a clinic in a rescue helicopter.
Cause: Deflagration of an aggregate
After Sunday’s accident, the exact cause must now be determined. The moving truck was secured. The police initially said the cause of the fire was the deflagration of an engine on a trailer.
It is not the first serious incident at a carnival parade in Germany. In Eppingen in 2018, an 18-year-old was held over a cauldron of hot water by a group of disguised witches during a carnival parade. The young woman scalded her legs. The cauldron was located on a group pull wagon and was heated by a wood-fired stove.
In 2017, a 26-year-old was used to protect a tractor during a carnival parade in Hambrücken near Karlsruhe. However, the young woman stumbled, was run over by the vehicle and sustained life-threatening injuries. Also in 2017, a then 21-year-old fell from a carnival float in Markt Indersdorf, Upper Bavaria, during a parade. He fell headfirst to the ground from a height of four meters and was critically injured.
