BERLIN: Massive Aquarium Burst: 1 million litres of water are spilled and 1,500 tropical fish are killed

editor December 16, 2022 0

A huge aquarium in Berlin that was home to around 1,500 exotic fish has burst, spilling 1 million litres of water and debris onto a major road in the busy Mitte district, emergency services said.

Around 100 emergency responders rushed to the site, a leisure complex that houses a Radisson hotel and a museum as well as what Sea Life Berlin said was the world's largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium at 14 metres in height.

When the aquarium ruptured on Friday, Naz Masraff, a guest at the hotel, said, "It felt like an earthquake." Sandra Weeser, a different hotel visitor, described the mayhem. "The entire aquarium erupted, leaving nothing but complete destruction. large numbers of dead fish, detritus, "She spoke.

Emergency services urged about 350 hotel guests to pack their stuff and leave because they were worried there would be structural damage after two people were hurt by glass shards.

The tragedy, according to Mayor Franziska Giffey, unleashed a "true tsunami" of water, but the early morning time spared many more victims. We were still quite fortunate, she continued, despite all the destruction.

If the aquarium had exploded even an hour later, when more people would have been awake and around the hotel and the surrounding neighbourhood, she claimed, "we would have suffered horrible human damage."

Before the tragedy, the AquaDom was reportedly the largest cylindrical tank in the world and contained over a thousand tropical fish.

The blue tang and clownfish, two vivid species made famous by the well-known animated film Finding Nemo, were among the 80 different kinds of fish.

Mayor Giffey stated that none of the 1,500 fish could be salvaged.

The ground level of the building was too strewn with debris for responders to enter, so search and rescue dogs combed the area, but they were unable to locate any casualties, the Berlin fire service reported on Twitter.

According to a fire department spokesperson who talked to Reuters, the exact reason of the AquaDom aquarium's explosion is yet unknown.

It was believed that the acrylic glass tank exploded because of a crack brought on by the overnight subzero temperatures, which caused it to crack under the weight of the water.

Police claimed there was no proof the incident was the result of malicious activity. 'Unbelievable damage' Incredible harm, In a statement, Sea Life Berlin said that its staff was surprised by the occurrence and was attempting to speak with the AquaDom's owners to learn more about what had transpired.

The business, which had previously provided glass elevator rides inside the AquaDom aquarium, said that it would also be closed indefinitely.

There had been "unbelievable maritime damage," the police claimed on Twitter.

On Friday afternoon, work was being done to preserve an additional 400–500 smaller fish kept in aquariums under the hotel lobby. Officials claimed that without electricity, their tanks were not getting the oxygen they needed to thrive.

Almut Neumann, a city official in charge of environmental concerns for Berlin's Mitte area, told German news agency dpa, "Now it's about evacuating people rapidly."

The Berlin Zoo was one of many organisations who offered to take the remaining fish.

The aquarium turned into a "death trap" for the fish who were kept inside, the animal rights organisation PETA tweeted on Thursday.

They wrote, "This man-made catastrophe demonstrates that aquariums are not a safe environment for fish and other aquatic creatures.

Due to the significant amount of water that had spilled out of the structure, emergency officials had to close a key road near to the complex that runs from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate.

The DomAquaree complex's website states that the aquarium had its most recent renovation in 2020.

The fish were transferred to aquariums in the building's basement, where there is a breeding facility for the fish, during the upgrading work, which involved draining the tank of all its water.

A real estate fund run by Union Investment owns DomAquaree and the AquaDom aquarium.