Fireworks accident triggered fatal explosion in Swiss parking garage

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It was probably more than normal fireworks, but not explosives in the true sense, said Daniel Wächter, spokesman for the Aargau cantonal police, at a media conference in Nussbaumen on Friday afternoon.

He spoke of a “powerful firework”. Apparently it had been used in the underground car park. This led to several explosions on Thursday at around 7 p.m. The work of the fire investigators is ongoing.

Experts are also checking the structural integrity of the underground car park in the residential area in the village center. Measures have been taken to secure the underground car park, it was said. Cars were towed away to reduce the load on the ceiling above the underground car park. An excavator removed rubble from the affected underground car park for private tenants.

There was great chaos in the underground car park. According to the police, there was immense damage to the building and to the parked vehicles. There are no estimates yet as to the extent of the damage.

+ Initiative to ban fireworks receives 100,000 signatures

Some of the approximately 100 people who were evacuated from six buildings connected to the underground car park were able to return to their homes during the night. A contact point was set up on site for the remaining people on Friday morning. The eleven injured people are expected to be back home, according to the police.

Clean-up work

The day after the explosions, the clean-up work continued. Daylight showed a picture of destruction: a pizzeria, an optician and a hairdresser’s were particularly badly affected. Traces of smoke and broken windows were visible on the facade, as a reporter from Keystone-SDA reported.

The traces of the explosions were also clearly visible on the high-rise building opposite. Blinds were bent, shutters were crooked and window panes were broken. On a balcony on the fifth floor it looked as if a grenade had hit the corner of the building from below.

Bettina Lutz-Güttler, mayor of Obersiggenthal, said in a View In the video, she said that the event had shocked her and that similar images were only seen in war zones. Politically, Nussbaumen belongs to the municipality of Obersiggenthal. Possible rooms to accommodate people were organized together with the police.

Violent explosions

Shortly before 7 p.m. on Thursday evening, several explosions occurred in the underground car park. The fire then spread across several floors of an apartment block. The high, mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke could be seen from afar.

According to police, fire-fighting operations were completed on Friday night. No further dead or injured people were found.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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