Thursday, January 1
Shortly after 10 am on New Year’s morning, the fire brigade was alerted to a fire at the queer Christmas market, called Christmas Avenue, in Berlin-Schöneberg. No one was hurt, and the market was no longer open at the time of the fire.
The market sits below the above-ground station Nollendorfplatz, and the fire had spread rapidly to the station before rising to the roof, burning around 150 square metres.
A spokesman said, “We first had to put out the fire under the subway.” Then, extensive extinguishing had to be carried out. Around 80 emergency personnel were on site, according to the fire brigade, and the operation took about two hours.
Due to the fire, several U-Bahn lines were interrupted for a few hours. On their website, the BVG announced, “U2: Due to a fire brigade operation, the line does not run between S+U Zoologischer Garten and S+U Potsdamer Platz.” From 1:30 pm, trains were running again.
The cause of the fire is unknown, and it is not yet clear how many market stalls were burned or how much property damage occurred.
