A major fire broke out on Monday afternoon in a warehouse in Hamburg’s Veddel district, leading to a series of explosions from pressurised gas cylinders and spreading debris onto the A1 motorway. The blaze was reported at 15:29 local time in a hall on Müggenburger Straße. Firefighters said they were still extinguishing hotspots the following morning.
The Hamburg Fire Department escalated the incident to a fifth alarm level and imposed a 400-meter exclusion zone as gas bottles, initially believed to contain nitrous oxide, exploded for more than two hours. Burning fragments were hurled hundreds of meters, setting alight adjacent buildings and open spaces. The warehouse roof collapsed before midnight.
The A1 motorway near the site was temporarily closed in both directions due to falling debris, injuring one person on the highway and causing traffic jams of up to 12 kilometers.
Seagoing commercial traffic was not affected, but the Hamburg Port Authority imposed barriers on parts of the Norderelbe, the Spreekanal and the Peutekanal, restricting inland and port shipping. More than 320 emergency personnel worked through the night. Equipment used included police water cannon, airport crash tenders, the fireboat Prag, drones and a police helicopter.
The federal relief agency THW said partial demolition of the structure was planned in the early hours to reach remaining hotspots. The plant fire brigade of copper producer Aurubis assisted, and the company temporarily closed nearby areas.
The incident occurred in an industrial area east of Hamburg’s main container terminals.
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) is a publicly listed German company headquartered in Hamburg. It operates container terminals in Hamburg, Odessa and Tallinn, as well as intermodal transport and logistics networks across Europe.
Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) is a public institution owned by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. It is responsible for port infrastructure, traffic management, safety regulations, and the development of the Port of Hamburg.
Technisches Hilfswerk (THW) is the Federal Agency for Technical Relief of Germany, established by federal law and operating under the Federal Ministry of the Interior. It provides disaster control and technical assistance in Germany and abroad.