Major fire in an industrial and technological park in Laufen
22 February, 2021
Early on Friday morning 10th of July 2020, a major fire completely destroyed buildings over an area of approximately 20,000 m² in the Laufen industrial and technological park. 220 members from 10 fire departments in the cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt and Solothurn together with staff from other organisations were involved in the firefighting operation. Firefighting was made more difficult by the fact that the water main available did not provide sufficient water and a further supply of water had to be obtained from the river Birs. No one was injured in the fire or during the work to put it out. The damage nevertheless amounted to well over a million francs.
On the morning of Friday 10th of July 2020 at 3.14 a fire alarm system in the industrial and technological park in Laufen (Basel-Landschaft) set off an automatic alarm at the Basel-Landschaft operational command centre. The latter alerted the Laufental fire station within 1 minute by pager. The industrial park had arisen from the re-use of the buildings on the site of the former Laufen ceramics factory.
Four minutes after the first report, a second report was received from a passer-by attempting to get to work that intense smoke was being generated on the site and that flames were already shooting out from the roofs. As a result a major alarm for the entire Laufental fire station was immediately triggered. The station responded to the fire scene with their entire fleet, including the Bronto F32TLK aerial platform.
The duty officer of the fire department inspectorate of both Basel cantons was called out. The chief of operations of the Laufental fire station, who arrived on scene shortly afterwards, saw shop window panes bursting, an ignition of flue gas in one building and a full-scale fire in the premises of a motor cycle dealer. He immediately also called out the Reinach fire station with one firefighting unit and the Bronto F38RL aerial ladder platform. Shortly afterwards the Brislach fire brigade was called as well.
In view of the confused situation on the site, shortly after 4 am the duty officer of the fire brigade inspectorate of both Basel cantons took over operational command, and made further calls for emergency personnel and equipment. Thus, amongst other things the Bronto F32TLK aerial ladder platform from the Sissach fire station and another aerial belonging to the Basel professional fire brigade and the Bronto F55RPX from the Roche company fire brigade were also called out.
Two problems for the deployment
The chief of operations of the fire brigade inspectorate of both Basel cantons, Major Martin Bleuler, described two main problems in the deployment: water usage and fighting pockets of fire in the buildings which were full of nooks and crannies and which in addition did not allow any further indoor firefighting as a result of the collapsing roofs and walls of warehouses 6 to 9.
Initially there was sufficient extinguishing water available through the hydrant network. However, the more the fire spread, the clearer it became that water could only be delivered through an auxiliary water supply from an open watercourse. At 6.13 the HydroSub belonging to the Basel-Stadt canton professional fire brigade was deployed for this reason, which allowed water to be supplied from the river Birs.
The second problem of reaching the pockets of fire could not be overcome using the fire brigade’s own resources on account of the considerable size of the incident approximating 140 × 140 m. It was necessary to resort to using construction equipment from a local building firm which from the south-east cut a swathe into the burnt down warehouses whereupon an aerial platform could then enter.
In total the deployment involved 220 members of the fire brigade using 12 appliances, 7 aerial vehicles, 2 command vehicles and 35 small vehicles for transport, logistics and special equipment in the deployment which lasted more than 36 hours for the on-scene fire brigade with subsidiary contingents during the restoration work.
This article was compiled with the help of the records of Major Martin Bleuler (fire brigade inspector) and an article in the Löschblatt journal no 2/2020 of the fire brigades of both Basel cantons
Basellandschaftliche Gebäudeversicherung (BGV)
The Basellandschaftliche Gebäudeversicherung (BGV – Basel-Landschaft Canton Buildings Insurance) is a centre of excellence in the canton of Basel-Landschaft for prevention, firefighting and insurance. It has statutory tasks regarding leadership in and the coordination of firefighting. It supports the municipalities in an advisory capacity and provides relief for the community through the contributions it makes. Within the BGV the fire brigade inspectorate is a centre of excellence for damage control. It carries out the statutory tasks of the canton in the field of firefighting and ensures the fulfilment of its fire brigade duties.
The canton of Basel-Landschaft comprises an area of 518 km² and has 228,000 inhabitants.
The canton of Basel-Landschaft itself has more than 3 aerial platforms of the type Bronto; two F32TLK’s (2017) based at the Laufenthal and Sissach stations together with one F38RL (2005) in Reinach.