After the house collapsed as a result of a gas explosion, the clean-up work and investigations at the scene of the accident continue. It is not yet clear what exactly triggered the explosion in Hemer.
After the explosion in a residential building in Hemer, Sauerland, the clean-up work and police investigations at the scene of the accident continue. With heavy equipment, the technical relief organization and the fire brigade must gradually and carefully clear away the rubble.
The criminal police of the Märkischer Kreis had taken over the direction of the investigation on Saturday after it was established that there were no longer any missing persons under the rubble. Police officers secured the affected area in the residential area in the south of the 40,000-inhabitant city east of Iserlohn.
In the violent explosion on Friday evening, the residential building was completely destroyed and collapsed. “I’ve seen a few buildings after a gas explosion, but I’ve never seen complete destruction on such a scale,” said Hemer’s fire department spokesman Andreas Schulte.
According to the authorities, a total of eight people lived in the apartment building, five of them were in the house at the time of the accident. Two slightly injured people were rescued shortly after the detonation. A 32-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man were freed by rescue workers on Saturday night under the most difficult conditions. Those rescued were taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. There was initially no further information about her state of health. A 57-year-old woman died in the blast and collapse of the house. She could only be rescued lifeless from the rubble on Saturday morning around 9:00 a.m.
“The investigators have to do the rest now. We have to wait and see in peace now, we also have to give them time, »said the North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), who on Saturday got an impression of the extent of the destruction and the around 300 police, fire brigade and THW emergency services and Red Cross for their tireless efforts.
