It was a work shift like any other, but then came the great tragedy: on February 9, 1982, two men and a woman died on the premises of the Reinelt cosmetics company in Bruchköbel should draw for the rest of their lives.
What happened that early morning 40 years ago when the first workers started arriving for the morning shift?
A small spark had ignited gas escaping from one of the company's tanks, local media later reported.
Luise Glaser-Lotz
Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Main-Kinzig district.
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The explosion must have been huge: "A jet of flame, estimated by witnesses to be a hundred meters high, illuminated the darkness over Bruchköbel, rows of houses in the neighborhood were covered, walls were pushed in, cars were demolished, and windows were still breaking almost a kilometer away to break", the then FAZ correspondent Holger Dell described the events.
According to his report dated February 10, 1982, when darkness had lifted and the clouds of smoke cleared the 10,000 square meter company premises and the surrounding area, the extent of the catastrophe really became clear , was a large debris field.
Only several huge metal containers stuck out almost unharmed, fortunately, because one was full to the brim with propellant and, according to fire department spokesmen, the chaos could have worsened if it had also detonated." On the anniversary of the explosion, members of today's Bruchköbel fire department felt the event in the available archives and in conversations with contemporary witnesses and document it in detail on their homepage in text and pictures.
on the 9th
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Factory completely destroyed
The bang at 6:33 a.m. could be heard within a radius of 20 kilometers, reports the fire department, which speaks of the largest operation in its history.
The factory hall with a floor area of around 1850 square meters was completely destroyed.
Only a steel structure remained from a 1,200 square meter loading and storage hall.
The accident also had a particularly large impact because the Reinelt company, which produces perfumes, liquid soaps, sprays and cleaning agents with 70 employees, was located in a mixed residential and commercial area and therefore numerous residential buildings were in the immediate vicinity.
Even at a distance of five kilometers, roof tiles were thrown off the roofs, windows and doors were damaged.
A total of 1346 buildings were affected.
The total damage is estimated at around 14 million Deutschmarks, which according to the fire brigade had to be borne by the Hessian fire insurance.
"The departments of the Bruchköbel fire brigade that gradually arrived began with a comprehensive extinguishing attack and the cooling of the propane-butane tank.
Cries for help were heard from the part of the building that adjoined what was then the Miketta company.
Three injured men and one dead woman were later recovered from this area," the report said.
In the FAZ of February 10, there is talk of chaos. White, green and blue plastic bottles from the company, debris, dirt and much more pelted buildings, gardens and streets in the area. The road to the cosmetics company was covered half a meter high with it. Chemicals in containers and spray cans repeatedly exploded between the flames. Helpers from the area rescued the first injured from the debris field and drove them to hospitals. "When District Administrator Hans Rüger triggered the disaster alarm around nine o'clock, there was uncertainty about the fate of the employees and people from the neighborhood, who were the first concern after the fire was brought under control. Nobody knew how many people could still be buried under the rubble," wrote the FAZ-Correspondent.
With a squadron of dogs through the rubble
In addition to fire brigades from Hanau, Erlensee and Nidderau, the Red Cross, local doctors, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, the Bundeswehr, the American military police, the German police, employees of the municipal building yard and the administration, helicopters and private companies were also deployed.
The number of helpers is given as around 560 people.
A squadron of dogs searched for the injured and dead in the rubble.
She tracked down the other two fatalities.
Firefighters were busy for seven days and nights.
The guild masters of the glaziers and carpenters from the entire region were ordered to Bruchköbel to repair damage to the houses.
In order to prevent possible looting, the police have set up an object protection.
The investigations of the State Criminal Police Office lasted half a year.
According to the fire brigade, liquid propane-butane mixture, which was pressed into spray cans as a propellant, escaped through a small leak in the filling plant.
From the evening before until the explosion, around 100 kilograms escaped and were distributed in the production hall and in the filling room.
"It was never clear where the spark that triggered the explosion came from," it said.
The accident meant the end for the company.
Today there are single-family and terraced houses on the site.
The city commemorates the disaster on the anniversary with an event in the Jakobuskirche that is closed to the public due to Corona.
It will be broadcast from 2 p.m. on the Youtube channel "Jakobuskirche Bruchköbel"
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