Tanker Truck Blast in Germany Kills 30

A runaway gasoline tanker truck crashed into an apartment building in the town of Herborn on Tuesday night, triggering chain-reaction explosions that spread to other structures, killing at least 30 people and injuring 29, West German police said.

“I have never seen so many dead bodies in a pile,” a police officer on the scene told Frankfurt radio. Authorities feared the death toll could go higher during a search of the rubble of several houses damaged by the explosions and fire.

The unidentified driver, who survived the catastrophe in critical condition, told police his brakes failed as he entered the community of about 20,000, about 50 miles east of Bonn, in central Germany.

The accident occurred about 9 p.m., police said, when the tanker laden with 8,400 gallons of gasoline veered from the road and plunged into an ice cream parlor on the ground floor of an apartment building. The tanker exploded, setting the building on fire.

Burning fuel streamed into nearby houses, and natural gas lines were also ignited by the blast, causing secondary explosions, firemen said.

‘It’s Still Too Hot in There’

Kurt Maier, a spokesman for the regional police force in the nearby town of Giessen, said there were at least 30 dead.

Gerhard Heimann, another police spokesman, told the Associated Press that more bodies might be inside the gutted ice cream parlor. “It’s too hot in there still and firemen have not been able to go in yet,” Heimann said.

The residential buildings were set ablaze at an hour when inhabitants had finished their evening meal and put their children to bed. Three buildings were destroyed and another five were heavily damaged by explosions and fires.

“One house after another exploded because they were linked by gas pipes,” Maier, the Giessen police spokesman, said.

Firemen at the scene said that it was still too soon to tell how many more victims might be found but 27 were being treated for serious burns in local hospitals. A pizzeria on the floor above the ice cream parlor apparently was closed at the time of the accident.

Firemen were still pumping water into the area well past midnight. The fire chief ordered all natural gas supplies shut off within a radius of a mile and a half of the impact area. Residents were warned not to use their stoves or ignite flames in their houses until the risk of explosion from gasoline fumes or leakage into house lines was abated.

Telephone service in the area was also shut down, and police warned the curious to avoid the area, a hilly region of Hessen State.

Police blocked off all roads into the district, restricting access to emergency vehicles.

Firefighting equipment and ambulances were sent to Herborn from as far away as Frankfurt and Wiesbaden.

Firefighting authorities warned early today that there was a danger that some of the structures could collapse after the blazes were extinguished. Authorities said it could take some time before the number of dead was firmly established, because they would have to comb through the ruins of the destroyed apartment buildings and houses.