Show of hands... who wants fish sticks and who wants sushi?

Kidding aside, I'm wondering about the electric shock hazards this incident posed for the hotel guests and workers, as well as first responders, considering that there was an elevator that ran through the middle of the aquarium.

It will be interesting to learn the cause of this.

1M liters = 264172.052 gallons.

[Note: several hyperlinks found at linked website article.]

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World’s largest free-standing aquarium bursts, leaving 1,500 exotic fish dead

By Sarah Do Couto Global News
Posted December 16, 2022 11:33 am

The largest free-standing aquarium in the world, which housed about 1,500 exotic fish, burst on Friday morning in Berlin, Germany, flooding public streets with water, debris and dead marine life.

The popular tourist attraction, the AquaDom, is located in the Sea Life Center amid a Radisson hotel, a museum and several retail shops. The 14-metre-high cylindrical tank held 1 million litres of water and housed 80 different species of fish before the burst.

The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, confirmed that “none of the 1,500 fish could be saved.”



People gather on the top of the AquaDom aquarium at the Sea Life tourist attraction in Berlin, July 27, 2015. The aquarium burst on Friday. AP

The tank exploded just before 6 a.m. after a night of freezing temperatures in Berlin, The Guardian reported. Water rushed out of the building and onto the main road, forcing lamps, bellhop trolleys and retail merchandise into the street.

Berlin police claimed two people were taken to hospital with minor injuries from glass splinters. Rescue dogs will search the building for anyone potentially trapped under the debris.

The New York Times reported about 100 firefighters were on the scene to close the flooded road, evacuate hotel guests and assess the damage.

When hotel guests were evacuated from the Radisson this morning, many claimed to see dead, frozen fish strewn across the sidewalk.



A fish lays in the debris in front of a hotel where a huge aquarium burst in Berlin, Germany, on Friday. AP

One hotel guest told a local German news station, as per the New York Times, that she thought a small earthquake had occurred when the tank exploded. She also said she had seen a dead parrot fish frozen to the sidewalk.

As of this writing, the cause of the aquarium’s destruction is unknown. Some have speculated the -10 C temperatures experienced in Berlin early Friday may have caused the tank to crack.

The company that owns the AquaDom, Union Investment Real Estate, said in a statement that it is “still unclear” what triggered the tank’s eruption.

Police said there is no evidence the tank was tampered with.



A police officer walks in front of debris after a huge aquarium burst at the Seal Life Aquarium in central Berlin, Germany on Friday. AP


“Despite all the destruction, we were still very lucky,” said Mayor Giffey. She said there would have been greater harm and “terrible human damage” had the aquarium burst even an hour later when more people were active in the hotel and the surrounding area.

She described the incident as a “veritable tsunami.”

Currently, officials are working to remove the fish from other smaller, surrounding aquariums in the Sea Life Center because the AquaDom’s burst cut power to the building. Without electricity, the tanks cannot be powered, and the fish will not receive enough oxygen to survive.

Local organizations, including the Berlin Zoo, have agreed to temporarily house the recently displaced fish.

The aquarium, which was last modernized in 2020, is a major tourist magnet in Berlin. The 10-minute elevator ride through the tropical tank was one of the highlights of the attraction.

— With files from The Associated Press

@ 2 minute news report


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xeraM_bTDmc

One man was seen running from the scene

quote:

I'm wondering about the electric shock hazards this incident posed for the hotel guests and workers, as well as first responders, considering that there was an elevator that ran through the middle of the aquarium.

According to the article you posted:

quote:

Currently, officials are working to remove the fish from other smaller, surrounding aquariums in the Sea Life Center because the AquaDom’s burst cut power to the building. Without electricity, the tanks cannot be powered, and the fish will not receive enough oxygen to survive.

Wonder how thick the glass was, in order to hold over 2 million pounds of water!

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

I'm wondering about the electric shock hazards this incident posed for the hotel guests and workers, as well as first responders, considering that there was an elevator that ran through the middle of the aquarium.

According to the article you posted:

quote:

Currently, officials are working to remove the fish from other smaller, surrounding aquariums in the Sea Life Center because the AquaDom’s burst cut power to the building. Without electricity, the tanks cannot be powered, and the fish will not receive enough oxygen to survive.

I had noticed that also. My comment was about the moments after the burst. I'm assuming that the decision to cut the power was made sometime after the emergency call went out and after the arriving first responders first assessed the situation.

I was thinking that the time between the glass shattering and the time it took before making the decision to cut the power might've been a little hairy.

egregore, that was the fish tank exploding movie scene I was picturing in my memory, but the only other similar scene I could recall was from The Naked Gun.

quote:

I'm assuming that the decision to cut the power was made sometime after the emergency call went out and after the arriving first responders first assessed the situation.

My assumption would be that cutting the power was an automated process because for the same reason I can’t toast bread in the bathtub without an extension cord, the people that designed and built a multistory aquarium with an elevator inside took the obvious hazard of saltwater and electricity into consideration.

quote:

Originally posted by Excam_Man:
Wonder how thick the glass was, in order to hold over 2 million pounds of water!

Not thick enough.



Some engineering feats someone still needs to step back and ask... is this a good idea? lol

It’s probably acrylic. No idea how thick especially with the cylindrical design. By way of comparison, our rectangular aquarium holds 644,000 gallons and the windows vary from 4” to 6”

They should have listened to Scotty. He used it to transport 2 humpty-backed whales and over 50+ tons of water.

The Transparent Aluminum seems to have failed. Damn you, Scotty...

quote:

The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, confirmed that “none of the 1,500 fish could be saved.”

quote:

Local organizations, including the Berlin Zoo, have agreed to temporarily house the recently displaced fish.

Something's not right with the story.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, confirmed that “none of the 1,500 fish could be saved.”

quote:

Local organizations, including the Berlin Zoo, have agreed to temporarily house the recently displaced fish.

Something's not right with the story.

Sounds fishy to me.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, confirmed that “none of the 1,500 fish could be saved.”

quote:

Local organizations, including the Berlin Zoo, have agreed to temporarily house the recently displaced fish.

Something's not right with the story.

You need to re-read it. There are other smaller tanks that didn't burst and those fish need to be relocated due to the power outage.

Price drop at nearby sushi bar expected.

Apparently a couple dozen fish were in an alternate tank, or else survived in water-filled spaces. As has been noted, luckily this happened at 0545 hrs in a largely empty hotel lobby with only two people lightly injured from splinters.



The acrylic glass was made by a Colorado company, Reynolds Polymer Technology. Unsurprisingly they seem rather interested in what happened to their product, too, and are reportedly sending a team of their own to investigate.

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
Apparently a couple dozen fish were in an alternate tank, or else survived in water-filled spaces. As has been noted, luckily this happened at 0545 hrs in a largely empty hotel lobby with only two people lightly injured from splinters.



The acrylic glass was made by a Colorado company, Reynolds Polymer Technology. Unsurprisingly they seem rather interested in what happened to their product, too, and are reportedly sending a team of their own to investigate.

It seems obvious that their product is not all it was cracked up to be.....

Click-bait title there MDS: I'm sure I'm NOT the only one looking for actual video of the aquarium bursting you seemingly invited us in here to view...