Parts of the hall used by various companies burned down, but the fire department was able to prevent the fire from spreading to the entire hall or its roof structure. The water supply on the site caused problems, especially in the early phase of the operation. Firefighters had to lay hoses over several hundred meters to the nearest hydrant.
[advertisement placement="google_ads_infeed_one" align="left"]Around 1 a.m., the first emergency calls were received at the Integrated Control Center reporting a fire in the area of the old castle brewery. To investigate the still very vague fire report, the members of the Neunkirchen-Innenstadt fire district of the Neunkirchen Volunteer Fire Department were the first to be dispatched. After numerous further emergency calls were received in the following minutes and the suspicion of a fire increasingly solidified, the control center raised the alarm level and additionally alerted the Wellesweiler fire district for reinforcement. Bright flames and thick smoke from the long, narrow hall above Hohlstraße were visible to the first Neunkirchen fire brigade units arriving at the old brewery site. They immediately escalated the alarm level once more, which, among other things, triggered an alarm for the Wiebelskirchen fire district.
The units of the Neunkirchen fire brigade immediately split up to tackle the fire from two sides. The first forces advanced directly to the Schlossbräu site, while the following units took positions in Hohlstraße below the burning hall. The situation was initially difficult on both sides of the operation site. From Hohlstraße, which was closed to traffic early on, the fire was clearly visible through the hall facade made partly of glass blocks but remained initially unreachable for an attack due to this glass block front. Meanwhile, the forces on the brewery site itself had good access to the fire through a large shattered window on the upper floor of the hall, but lacked the necessary water for an effective attack using the water projector of the turntable ladder. The firefighters had to painstakingly lay a hose line at top speed across the brewery site to a hydrant about 200 meters away at the intersection of Tal-, Brauerei-, and Büchelstraße. Only after completing the hose line could the turntable ladder, supported by several ground-level nozzles, begin firefighting operations. Through the massive firefighting attack, it was initially possible to suppress the flames and prevent an initial spread of the fire to the hall roof structure.
[advertisement placement="google_ads_infeed_two" align="left"]The problematic water supply was addressed by the operations command supported by the Neunkirchen fire brigade leadership, district fire inspector Michael Sieslack, and district fire chief Sascha Cattarius through the request for a special unit of the fire brigades in the district to support water supply efforts. The unit, formed by the fire brigades of Merchweiler, Schiffweiler, and Eppelborn, headed to Neunkirchen and remained on standby to set up additional water lines to more distant, high-capacity hydrants. At the same time, the forces on site were further reinforced by the Münchwies fire district and the aerial ladder of the Ottweiler fire brigade, while the Furpach fire district was positioned as a reserve at the Neunkirchen fire station. The drone unit of the Illingen fire brigade was also deployed to gain a better overview of the incident site from the air.
After the extinguishing success achieved from the outside, firefighters equipped with breathing apparatus pursued the fire inside the building. Through this so-called interior attack, the fire was finally brought under control and completely extinguished. The overhaul operations following the actual fire fighting were elaborate and time-consuming, during which firefighters searched for smoldering nests hidden in the fire debris. The ventilation of the hall complex also proved to be very complex. The conventional positive pressure ventilators of the fire department reached their limits with the large hall and its oversized main gate. To nevertheless be able to push the harmful fire smoke out of every corner of the hall, the incident command requested support from the Bosch plant fire brigade in Homburg. With the large fan of the plant fire brigade, the entire hall could be ventilated and cleared of smoke.
[advertisement placement="google_ads_infeed_three" align="right"]The firefighters were supported during their hours-long operation by police forces and emergency medical services. Police officers closed Hohl and Talstraße to traffic during the night hours due to firefighting operations. For the medical support of the personnel, an ambulance from the Workers' Samaritan Federation initially responded, which was later replaced by volunteer units of the German Red Cross from the district.
It was not until around 6 a.m. that the operation could be concluded and the last of the up to 150 firefighters at the peak were released from duty. However, by 7 a.m. the Neunkirchen fire brigade had to return to the hall affected by the fire once again. Until about 9 a.m., additional smoldering embers had to be extinguished to prevent the fire from flaring up again. The fire destroyed rooms on an upper floor of the hall complex. Large areas of the hall were affected by smoke and soot from the fire. Due to the smoke development, the population was temporarily urged during the operation, among other things through the use of warning apps, to close windows and doors in the vicinity of the brewery site.
