Fire extinguished in Schmidts Tivoli on the Reeperbahn

Shortly after 12:00 p.m., the operations manager of the Hamburg professional fire brigade reported "Unharness": The fire site was finally under control and the fire extinguished. However, the operation was not over then, according to a spokesman, the further post-extinguishing work continued for about two more hours. The background to the fire is still unclear. The cause of the fire is now being determined by the police.

On Tuesday morning, several eyewitnesses alerted the rescue control center after there had been "a heavy smoke over the roof of the traditional Hamburg theater," as the spokesman explained. "The situation manager immediately triggered the 'Fire 2' alarm level and two fire engines from the professional fire brigade and several volunteer fire brigades were alerted to Spielbudenplatz."

When the first firefighters arrived, "gray and deep black smoke" was already coming out of the entire roof of the theater. The fire blazed in particular in a rear part of the theater, which stretches from Spielbudenplatz to Kastanienallee.

"Two squads wearing respiratory protection with two C-tubes were immediately sent into the building," said the spokesman. “Another C-tube was deployed via a turntable ladder on Kastanienallee. A second turntable ladder went into position on Spielbudenplatz.”

As it turned out, the fire started in the attic of the three-story building used to store files and Christmas decorations from the theatre. The fire brigade was able to prevent the fire from spreading to the auditorium, which was directly below the source of the fire.

"Several teams on the roof had to cut large openings in the roof skin with special chainsaws to ensure smoke and heat extraction," it said. “The fire also ran into the wooden beam ceiling between the upper floor and the attic. This therefore had to be recorded over a large area in order to get to other sources of the fire.”

The big challenge was to extinguish the fire and cause as little "additional damage to the theater technology and the infrastructure of the old theater building through the work of the fire brigade and fire-fighting water," said the spokesman. "This was achieved, among other things, with the help of water suction devices, with which excess extinguishing water was collected as quickly as possible."

The Hamburg fire brigade was on duty for Hamburg for 5 hours with a total of 50 professional fire brigade and volunteer fire brigades.

“We are very happy that the fire was brought under control so quickly and that no major damage was caused. So we can continue playing tonight, ”explained Schmidt boss Tessa Aust. "We would like to thank the colleagues of the Hamburg fire brigade for their great and level-headed commitment."

An afternoon performance was cancelled. In the evening, however, the theater should be up and running again. Until then, however, it still has to be thoroughly ventilated. "In the theater hall it stinks like fire smoke," said the fire department spokesman.