It was like a tsunami, says neighbor of aquarium that exploded in Berlin

The American Marielle Tierney, 46, thought that a bomb had fallen near her apartment when she was awakened by an explosion around 5:40 am this Friday (16). A neighbor of the Radisson hotel in Berlin, what she heard was the sound of a 16-metre high aquarium breaking up and spilling more than 1,000 tonnes of water and debris onto a street in the busy Mitte district.

“Our apartment is in the same complex as the hotel, so [o barulho] was high,” she, who works as a volunteer receiving Ukrainian refugees at the central train station in Berlin, says via email to Sheet🇧🇷 The leisure complex also houses a museum, shops and restaurants, as well as the AquaDom, which management called the largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium in the world.

Tierney says that as soon as he woke up, he opened the door to his balcony and found security guards going from one side to the other. It took about five minutes for police and firefighters to arrive on the scene — 100 rescuers were called, according to police.

At first, the smoke was so much that she could barely see her surroundings. It wasn’t until it dissipated and the sun rose that the devastation became visible, continues Tierney: several of the restaurants in the complex were destroyed, and the garage was flooded, as were the storage units located there, from which she tried to save some of her belongings.

“It’s like the damage of a tsunami”, compares the American, saying she is relieved that there were no deaths. “I’m sure there would be [a explosão] happened later,” he adds.

The speech is similar to that made by the mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, in an interview with the RBB broadcaster. “If this hadn’t happened at 5:45 am [1h45, em Brasília]but just an hour later, we would probably have terrible human losses to report,” he said.

According to municipal police, two people were injured by shrapnel after the explosion, including a Radisson employee. About 350 hotel guests evacuated its premises at the request of emergency crews, who fear structural damage. As the temperature outside was around -7ºC in the morning, buses were sent to welcome them.

In an email sent to members of its perks club, the Radisson chain said the hotel will be closed indefinitely. The company Aquadom, which operated an elevator in the center of the aquarium, also announced that it had ceased operations for the time being.

The cause of the explosion is still unknown, but one of the suspicions of the authorities is that the low temperatures caused cracks in the structure, which ended up giving in to the pressure of the thousand tons of water.

According to authorities, all 1,500 fish that lived in the aquarium died. Now, firefighters and employees of the leisure complex where the structure used to be are trying to save another 500 smaller fish that are housed in aquariums under the hotel lobby. That’s because the explosion affected the building’s energy, and the lack of electricity interrupted the supply of oxygen necessary for the survival of animals.

AquaDom was closed for renovations in October 2019. Due to Covid, it remained closed for almost three years, until June of this year. According to the company that manages it, the aquarium is home to species ranging from clownfish, like the one from the movie “Finding Nemo”, to seahorses, jellyfish and stingrays.