![[Translate to English:] Copyright Philipp Puliafito](/fileadmin/_processed_/1/e/csm_ifa_MAG_779_Nussbaumen1_bd5280b23e.jpg "[Translate to English:] Copyright Philipp Puliafito")
On 13 June 2024, a violent explosion occurred in an underground car park in Nussbaumen in the Swiss canton of Aargau, causing extremely unusual damage. As a result, 12 neighbouring buildings were damaged, and 60 flats became uninhabitable due to the spread of fire and smoke. Two people were killed and 12 were injured. Deputy incident commander Philipp Puliafito gives an insight into how this unusual incident was resolved and how the fire services were deployed for days on end.
Fire alarms from a building 100 metres away
The explosion occurred in a neighbouring room in the underground car park. The cause is suspected to be the improper handling of category 4 fireworks (large-scale fireworks display) by two private individuals who died in the accident. Just the pager message did not bode well for the Obersiggenthal fire service. Two fire alarms from the buildings at Schulstrasse 2 and Schulstrasse 3 were received in immediate succession. The two properties are around 100 metres apart. On the way there, Philipp Puliafito saw a vast cloud of smoke: «At that moment, I had no idea what was coming.»
Sheer unimaginable dimensions
«When we arrived at the scene,» reports Philipp Puliafito, «it was chaos. People were running around everywhere. Debris weighing around one tonne was hurled up to 100 metres through the air. And there were fires in the neighbouring buildings.» The fires in the buildings were caused by flying burning debris.
A twelve-storey residential building was completely filled with smoke from the basement to the top floor. In other residential buildings, ‘only’ individual floors were filled with smoke. 40 doors had to be forced open to fight the fires and check 120 flats. As the situation map above shows, there were a very large number of incident sites simultaneously.
Around 300 emergency personnel deployed
220 firefighters had to be deployed to deal with this emergency situation. In addition, forces from the police, ambulance service, civil defence, and other partner organisations were involved. A total of around 300 emergency personnel with 50 vehicles were deployed.
Portable monitor reduce risk to emergency personnel
The greatest challenge for the firefighters was the acute danger of the underground car park collapsing because the pressure wave from the explosion had caused walls to collapse, and even the ceiling of the underground car park, which served as a parking area, had shifted by several centimetres - even though it was designed to hold a weight of 40 tonnes. Portable monitors were used to fight the fire in order to reduce the risk to the emergency personnel. When asked, Philipp Puliafito confirmed that suitable portable monitors remain stable in place, if they are set up correctly. He generally sees this equipment as a valuable option for fighting underground car park fires. The staff officer went on to say that a special robot from the Zurich Forensic Institute was used to recover the bodies.
No injured emergency personnel
In the overall assessment shown in the slide below, Philipp Puliafito emphasises that all the emergency personnel were at least physically unharmed. Nevertheless, their strain was very high, as the deployment lasted three days for many of them, with short interruptions at night. Ultimately, everyone received psychosocial support: «The debriefing was a compulsory session for everyone - and that was a good thing,» summarises Puliafito.
The right people in the right place
The slide below lists what has proved successful from the point of view of the deputy incident commander. It was very helpful that a large number of firefighters with a great deal of experience were deployed. And last but not least, the team was highly disciplined, as demonstrated, for example, by the fact that no one took private photos of the operation.
Lessons learnt
In reflecting on the operation, Philipp Puliafito emphasises known problem areas such as radio communication, the distribution of roles in the incident command and the issue of stress management. One particular realisation was that, with so many scenes of operation, it can be the case that initially, safe areas can suddenly and unexpectedly become filled with smoke. And in the technical area, Philipp Puliafito sees the use of portable monitors as a key success factor.
