Roof fire in Bielefeld: Fire brigade successfully uses new extinguishing equipment!

Roof fire in Bielefeld: Fire brigade successfully uses new extinguishing equipment!

On Monday evening, June 2, 2025, there was a fire in the Bielefeld-Süd Business Park, which posed a challenge for the fire department. The fire department was alerted at 7:36 p.m. because smoke was being observed at G+K Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG. On the way to the scene, the firefighters discovered a column of smoke and open flames under the roof cover.

The fire department used a new extinguishing device that has been available in Bielefeld for about six months. This special extinguishing method used sand as a cutting agent in the extinguishing water to cut a small hole in the wood of the flat roof. Extinguishing water was sprayed through this hole to combat both the fire and the smoke fumes. The small opening prevented oxygen from penetrating from outside, which crucially supported the extinguishing work.

Effective deployment strategy

This innovative technique allowed additional parts of the roof to be opened and inspected with a thermal imaging camera to ensure the fire was under control. After an operation lasting about an hour, 40 emergency services from the main station, the south fire station and the Sennestadt, Brackwede and Eckhardtsheim volunteer fire departments were able to leave. The head of operations estimated the damage caused at a four-digit amount. However, the exact cause of the fire remained unclear; Roofing work took place on Monday, which was allegedly carried out without an open fire or angle grinder.

The Bielefeld criminal police (Kripo) have now called in a fire expert to clarify the causes of the fire. A police spokeswoman confirmed that on Monday, June 2nd, there was no concrete information about the cause of the fire or the amount of damage. The incident presented several challenges for both firefighters and investigators.

Compare to another incident

A comparable fire occurred on August 31, 2025 on Detmolder Strasse in Ubbedissen, where more than half of a warehouse measuring approximately 100 by 15 meters was in flames. Up to 150 firefighters had to work on the fire at the same time, and a total of up to 500 people were on site. During this operation, grey-black clouds of smoke rose up to 1,000 meters high and were visible as far away as Paderborn. Burning plastics, including fiber optic cables and empty pipes, led to the development of intense smoke. Here too, the damage was limited by effective fire brigade tactics so that the flames could be prevented from spreading to other companies in the industrial area.

Despite the successful extinguishing work, the affected company, which is based in Ubbedissen, remained silent and did not comment on the effects of the fire on employees or operations.

For Bielefeld, the latest incident shows how important revolutionary extinguishing techniques can be for firefighting. However, effectiveness and safety are always the focus of investigations after such fire events.

Further information can be found in the reports from NW.de and Westfalen-Blatt.