According to the fire brigade, the extinguishing work on the site of a paper factory in Zülpich (Euskirchen district) should probably continue until Wednesday. That said a spokesman for the fire brigade in Zülpich on Sunday night. The fire is under control, extinguishing the individual embers is a complex task, it said.
8,000 bales of paper on fire
The fire broke out on Friday afternoon. Around 8,000 paper balls burned at the top, as the spokesman for the Zülpicher fire brigade, Jakob Priebe, said on Saturday evening. According to Priebe, the more than 160 firefighters who have been on duty since Friday can gradually be withdrawn. Employees of the Technical Relief Agency were also on site to provide support.
As the police announced, the Rurtalbahn was stopped running. Rail traffic between Zülpich and Vettweiß (Düren district) is also still affected. For Sunday it is to be expected that the restrictions on regional train traffic could be lifted.
The B477 between the junction towards Geich and the B265 is therefore still blocked in both directions. A warning from the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) for Zülpich, Swisttal and Rheinbach was still active on Saturday evening.
Firefighter suffers fainting spell
A firefighter suffered a dizzy spell while fighting the fire on Saturday and was taken to the hospital. According to police reports, a small pile of scraps of paper caught fire on Friday for reasons that have not yet been clarified. A short time later, the fire is said to have spread to a large pile of waste paper – thousands of paper bales caught fire.
As a spokesman for the fire brigade in Euskirchen announced early on Saturday morning, the fire also spread to a field. Residents were asked to keep windows and doors closed and to turn off ventilation and air conditioning. However, this warning was lifted later on Saturday.
Soot precipitation in the neighboring communities
The fire caused soot to fall in the vicinity and even as far as the town of Euskirchen, about 15 kilometers away, according to the police statement. Due to a strong wind at times, the soot and the smell of burning also spread to the municipality of Swisttal and to Rheinbach in the neighboring Rhein-Sieg district.
As the district of Euskirchen also announced, there were sometimes more than 250 emergency services on site on Saturday night. By moving unaffected paper bales, company employees ensured that the fire did not spread further.