An emergency drill simulating a fire on a passenger train was held in a tunnel in Thuringia, eastern Germany.
The exercise, which was only a simulation, exposed serious flaws in the emergency response system: it reportedly took up to two hours for rescue teams to arrive at the scene.
According to local news outlet InSüdthüringen, the train driver issued an emergency call at 10.15am. However, it took thirty minutes for the emergency control centre in central Thuringia to be informed.
Another half hour passed before the fire brigade was alerted. In total, the local report states, it was two hours before first responders reached the tunnel.
Experts cited by InSüdthüringen said that if this had been a genuine blaze, the consequences would likely have been catastrophic. As one fire official put it: “If this had been real, everyone would have been dead by now.”
However, speaking to German news magazine Der Spiegel, local authorities disputed the timeline, claiming that emergency services reached the site at around 10.50am, just over thirty minutes after the alarm was raised.
Nevertheless, Petra Enders, chief administrator of the Ilm district, admitted to Spiegel that there were “major deficiencies”, especially in communication.
She highlighted that Deutsche Bahn’s internal procedures are “far too slow” and that emergency operations centres in Thuringia are still using fax machines for communication.
Technical problems and several serious road accidents occurring at the same time further affected the drill response. Enders has called on Deutsche Bahn to urgently review and overhaul its procedures.
