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Ludwigshafen blast: Did a cigarette do this?

Police are investigating reports that workers were smoking at a building site where a gas pipe exploded in Ludwigshafen on Thursday, killing one person and destroying part of the town.

Published: 27 October 2014 10:36 CET
Ludwigshafen blast: Did a cigarette do this?
The explosion in Ludwigshafen left a huge crater at the building site. Photo: DPA

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“Our colleagues are following up this lead,” a police spokeswoman said on Monday, confirming a report in the Rheinpfalz newspaper.

The newspaper quoted an eyewitness from a residents' meeting on Saturday who said that he saw workers smoking cigarettes before the blast at the town in Rhineland-Palatinate. 

Gas company Gascade said that they couldn't comment on the rumours, but asked people to report anything that they might have seen to investigators.

GALLERY: Explosion rocks Ludwigshafen

On Friday, Gascade director Christoph von dem Bussche said that a “qualified construction company” had been hired to uncover the pipeline before it exploded.

Responding to criticism that gas was still flowing during the building work, he said it was only normal to shut it off “when the pipeline is being worked on directly.”

There had been no sign of a leak in the pipe before the start of the digging, von dem Bussche said.

The explosion on Thursday killed one worker and injured 23 people.

Sixty homes were damaged, 38 so seriously that they are no longer habitable. Eighty vehicles were also damaged.

SEE ALSO: Ludwigshafen explosion kills one

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FIRE

Why have there been so many fires in Copenhagen this year?

Thursday’s fire at Denmark’s tax ministry follows a blaze at the historic Old Stock Exchange and several fires at the headquarters of pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk on the outskirts of Copenhagen.

Published: 27 June 2024 15:11 CEST
Why have there been so many fires in Copenhagen this year?

A fire broke out on Thursday morning on the roof of the building which houses Denmark’s Tax Ministry in central Copenhagen, which fire services in the capital were able to put out shortly afterwards.

The Tax Ministry fire is at least the fifth high-profile blaze in and around Copenhagen since April, following three at different buildings owned by pharma giant Novo Nordisk and the devastating fire which turned parts of the historic Old Stock Exchange (Børsen) to rubble.

The high number of fires occurring within a relatively short period appears to be down to no more than chance, Jens Kastvig, an expert with the Danish Society of Engineers said to newswire Ritzau.

“There’s always a risk that a fire can break out in a building,” Kastvig said, noting that the average annual fire rate is around one per 100,000 to 150,000 square metre of building.

“That could be anything from a smaller to a larger fire,” he said.

Kastvig said that he initially guessed the Tax Ministry fire was the result of renovation work.

Both Børsen and the Novo Nordisk buldings were also undergoing renovations at the time of their fires. This increases the risk of fire breaking out in a more flammable material such as bitumen waterproofing, or a fire otherwise related to the ongoing work.

No renovations were ongoing at the Tax Ministry however, the building’s owner ATP Ejendomme has confirmed.

“The fire services are busy at the moment. But I hope it’s a coincidence,” Kastvig said.

Tim Ole Sørensen of the Copenhagen Fire Service, Hovedstadens Beredskab, said on Thursday that there was no suggestion that the fires were related.

“There’s nothing that indicates any form of connection at all to us, and we are talking about very different businesses and types of building,” he said.

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