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Hoping to end the corona pandemic, people around the world have welcomed the year 2021. In Germany, many streets appeared to have been swept empty, there were fewer people on the road than usual on the eve of New Year. But despite the sales ban, there were fireworks in the sky. Initially, the largest incidents were hardly reported; However, a supermarket in Berlin with fireworks burned down and kept dozens of emergency services on alert.
Germany’s largest New Year’s Eve party and fireworks at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin had been canceled due to the current closure. Private celebrations were only allowed on a small scale throughout the country. In addition, there was a general ban on the sale of fireworks before New Year’s Eve, mainly to avoid typical injuries and thus relieve hospitals.
In Brandenburg, a 24-year-old man was killed in a fireworks accident. According to first police findings, the self-made pyrotechnics ignited shortly after midnight in Rietz-Neuendorf, near Frankfurt / Oder, as announced by a spokesperson on Friday morning. They were fireworks that could not be bought. Details of the exact course of the accident were initially unclear. The victim is said to have been with a group on undeveloped private property. There were no more injuries, the spokesman said. A police disarmament team also claimed fireworks had not been lit.
In Berlin’s Buckow district, a supermarket of approximately 800 square meters caught fire and partially collapsed. It appeared that fireworks had been stored in part of the building, which exploded and ripped through the area, a fire department spokesperson described. The approximately 100 emergency services that had arrived could only fight the flames from outside. People are not in danger, he said. According to initial findings, no one was injured.
Almost 100 members of emergency personnel were employed in a supermarket fire in Berlin.
(Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa)
Emergency services also had a lot to do in Leipzig, where seven Bundeswehr jeeps caught fire at the site of a car dealership. Police assumed arson. In Essen, around 30 young people first set garbage cans on fire and then launched firefighters at approaching firefighters in droves, as a police spokesman said. Police officers rushing to reinforce were also set off with fireworks. Officers eventually arrested a 16-year-old, none of the emergency services was injured.
Seven Bundeswehr jeeps caught fire in Leipzig.
(Photo: Sebastian Willnow / dpa)
In Berlin, but also elsewhere, the police had to repeatedly separate smaller groups of people. More than 80 rule breakers were temporarily detained there for violating the Infection Protection Act, a spokesperson said. Therefore, at least three officers were slightly injured in action, but were able to continue service. Police spokeswoman Patricia Brämer found words of praise. “We would like to thank the many Berliners who have adhered to the regulations.”
Also in the rest of Germany the streets tended to be quiet. “There is no comparison with previous years,” said a police spokesman in Mainz. Something similar could be heard from Munich, Bremen, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Downtown Düsseldorf, where firecrackers were banned, was deserted until just before midnight. From Hamburg it was reported from the location service that officials had occasionally picked up fireworks, but the streets were initially very empty.
