The underpass beneath Brno’s main railway station remains closed due to extensive electrical damage caused by a fire on Saturday, 11 May.
Vladimíra Navrátilová from Brno Communications said it was not yet clear how long the closure would last. It is therefore temporarily not possible to use the usually crowded underpass section that connects Vaňkova shopping centre and Tesco to the station and the city centre.
The fire broke out shortly before 2am on Saturday, which luckily reduced the threat to the public.
Five firefighter units gradually arrived at the scene, where the fire had completely engulfed three stands between the main station and the Letmo shopping centre and filled the area with smoke. Firefighters deployed two water streams to fight the flames and brought the fire under control around 2.20am.
Nádražní was completely closed during the operation, and after the station building had been evacuated. In the course of the operations, firefighters ventilated the underpass with a tunnel fan from Benešova.
During the fire, one firefighter and three members of the public suffered respiratory issues due to the smoke and underwent medical treatment. The fire was completely extinguished by 4 am. Around 6.30am, the response commander announced the end of the operation, and handed responsibility for the situation over to Brno Communications, the City of Brno’s road infrastructure company.
The Technical Institute of Fire Protection was called to the scene to investigate the possible causes of the fire, which was attributed to the technical failure of an electrical appliance. A preliminary survey estimated the damage at CZK 2 million.
