In May 1991, three exploding tank wagons full of premium petrol not only caused a large deployment of the auxiliary workers, but also kept the Spessart village busy for many years.
Photo: Andre Breitenbach
The huge pillar of fire and smoke, which stood in the sky above Partenstein (district Main-Spessart) on the evening of May 29, 1991, initially made the rushing aid workers believe that a plane would crash. The inferno, however, was triggered by a freight train that was on fire on the tracks in the Aubach Valley directly in front of the Spessart community. Its load was explosive: there were 22 tank cars on the locomotive – each filled with 40,000 liters of premium petrol. Two of them exploded immediately, and the fire caught the locomotive.
Photo: Elmar Weber
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The train driver had been slightly injured by jumping out of the window because the door had jammed and could no longer be opened. The fact that there was only one other injured person – a fire fighter suffered smoke poisoning during the extinguishing work – borders on a miracle, as a third tank car burst a few minutes after the extinguishing work had started. The flash of flame surprised the emergency services and the first onlookers and also warned the reporters approaching the scene of the accident to exercise special caution.
The greatest danger was averted after two hours
The around 20 fire departments from the Main-Spessart and Aschaffenburg districts managed to bring the fire under control after a good two hours, supported by special vehicles from the BASF works fire department and the Würzburg professional fire department. The greatest danger was finally averted shortly after midnight, when it was possible to uncouple the other tank wagons and move to the Wiesthal station. Several hundred emergency services were on site, including a train from the Würzburg riot police as well as the region’s technical relief agency and Red Cross.
Photo: Joachim Spies
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The later investigations revealed how the accident could have happened. On the busy railway line between Würzburg and Aschaffenburg, two freight trains in the direction of Lohr stood in front of stop signals – the accident train and a train loaded with lignite dust in front of it. It was a technical and human error as well as a coincidence that the tank wagon train started first and finally, despite braking hard, rammed the end of the waiting train. With 57169 and 57669, both trains had identical identifications except for one digit, the signaling system had failed that evening and the dispatcher at the previous station gave the colleague in Partenstein twice the same number. This released the signal.
Photo: Andre Breitenbach
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What made the catastrophe perfect and ultimately caused the costs to skyrocket to over 20 million marks was not only the burned-out train and the replacement of overhead lines and tracks, whereby the railway embankment had to be partially removed over a length of 150 meters, but the many A thousand liters of gasoline that had seeped deep into the earth.
Thousands of liters of fuel seeped into the ground
The fuel contaminated a water protection area. It is precisely from this area that one of the village’s two deep wells drew its drinking water. Hundreds of tons of crushed stone and soil had to be dredged and excavated. Removing the railway embankment completely was unrealistic, as that would have blocked the important railway line for months.
Photo: Joachim Spies
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The day after the accident, there was a smell of gasoline in the air in the fountain room of the Partensteiner Wasserhaus below the accident site. The fountain had become unusable. The polluter no longer considered the promises made by the railways immediately after the inferno that a new deep well would be financed and emergency supplies ensured. A long legal battle ensued.
Water emergency declared in summer 1993
The fountain was missing. In the high summer of 1993, the Spessart community had to announce the water emergency: During this time, the fire brigades in the surrounding area drove water into the community’s elevated tank to ensure the supply. At the end of October – two and a half years after the accident – an emergency line was finally laid. The railroad wanted the old well to be renovated, but the community refused and finally prevailed with the support of politicians and authorities as well as public pressure. A new deep well was built, and the dispute over the assumption of costs ended more than ten years after the incident at the end of 2001.
Photo: Andre Breitenbach
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75 years of Main-Post
On November 24, 1945, the first edition of the Main Post was published in destroyed Würzburg. The media house now also includes the Schweinfurter Tagblatt, Volkszeitung and Volksblatt, the Bote vom Haßgau, the Haßfurter Tagblatt and the Obermain-Tagblatt. Main Post’s 75th birthday is a reason for the editorial team to look back. We therefore publish stories from this past all year round.
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Partenstein
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Joachim Spies
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75 years of Main-Post
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Railway accidents
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petrol
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Riot police
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Messenger from Hassgau
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Dispatchers
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Fire departments
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Firefighters
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hazards
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Hassfurter Tagblatt
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Fuels
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Main Post Wuerzburg
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Human error
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Red Cross
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technical aid organization
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Trains
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