After a large-scale operation in a burning motorcycle shop in Sankt Augustin near Bonn, two firefighters are missing. Mayor Max Leitterstorf told journalists in Sankt Augustin that it was a man and a woman from the volunteer fire department. “Unfortunately, we have to assume the worst at the moment,” he said.
The two missing are “experienced firefighters”. Her relatives have been informed. “Today is possibly the darkest day in the history of the volunteer fire department,” said the mayor.
A spokesman for the city said in the evening of the German Press Agency that the extinguishing work at the site continued. The two firefighters are still missing. A task force is working on this in the town hall. Fire brigades from other communities are also on site.
More than 200 emergency services tried to extinguish the fire in the motorcycle shop with an adjacent workshop. Eleven emergency services were injured, five of them were taken to hospitals. The injuries also had something to do with the great heat on Sunday. The cause of the fire is still unclear.
50 meter high column of smoke
At times, a 50 meter high column of black smoke could be seen above the store. The street was filled with smoke, and the area around the site was cordoned off. According to a dpa photographer, emergency chaplains were on site.
The fire department was alerted at around 11:18 a.m. The scene of the fire is in a central street with residential buildings and shops. Residents have been asked to keep windows and doors closed, the spokesman said. A message was sent for this, among other things, via the warning app “Nina”.
After the incident, the entire Sankt Augustin volunteer fire brigade was decommissioned, said Leitterstorf. Firefighters from other municipalities would have taken over the extinguishing work.
