Brand in the Kaiserswerther hospital: fire brigade fights against strong clouds of smoke!

Brand in the Kaiserswerther hospital: fire brigade fights against strong clouds of smoke!

In the afternoon of May 19, 2025, there was a fire in the disposal center of the Kaiserswerther Hospital in Düsseldorf that alerted the fire brigade. At 3:07 p.m. the alarm went through the automatic fire alarm system. The fire brigade and the emergency services were immediately sent to the site, where a fire in the storage room in the basement was found. Fortunately, there were no injured people, reports Fireworld .

The first extinguishing teams that went into the building under respiratory protection, confronted strong smoke development and several triggered fire detectors. Due to the Situation, other emergency services were alerted to support the extinguishing measures. The fire could be brought under control after two and a half hours, but elaborate ventilation and post-extinguishing work were required. The remnants of the fire had to be brought outside to extinguish embers. As a precaution, the neighboring ventilation technology was switched off in order to minimize the risk of further spreading the smoke. However, the hospital operations itself remained undisturbed, such as Local office supplemented.

emergency services in continuous use

A total of around 70 full-time and volunteer emergency services were on site. The last emergency services returned after four and a half hours. The police have investigated the cause of the fire, whereby current statistical data from the Federal Association of Technical Fire Protection (BVFA) shed light on the background to such fires in hospitals. In Germany, 117 fires were registered in hospitals in 2023, where there were tragically five dead and 149 injuries. These figures illustrate the dangers that exist in such institutions, especially for patients who are often restricted in their self -rescue capacity.

fires in social institutions

The BVFA's fire statistics shows that the number of fires in hospitals has doubled in the same period. 126 fires were documented in old people's and nursing homes, which have 22 deaths and 181 injured numbers. One reason for the high number of victims is often the lack of investment -related fire protection measures, such as missing sprinklers. In the United States, the installation of such systems significantly reduced the number of fatalities in retirement homes, which underlines the need for such protection in Germany. In order to reduce these dangers, VFDB (Association for the Promotion of German Brand Protection e.V.) has published a leaflet on the selection of investment -related fire protection measures in hospitals and care facilities that can be downloaded free of charge.

The current situation requires increased attention to fire protection in social institutions, since the BVFA describes the fire risks as "consistently high with increasing tendency". Before the background of the fire in the Kaiserswerther hospital, it becomes clear how important preventive measures and technical equipment are to protect human life.