Accident in Jena-North: cooperation in Jena works excellently

At 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 11, the crisis management team lifted the disaster alert for Jena-North. This means the all-clear for the emergency services, who had been securing the accident site on the district heating pipeline near the Christliches Gymnasium since Wednesday afternoon.

Sequence of events

Initial consultations between the municipal utilities and the city leadership took place on the morning of February 10. At the same time, the firefighters began preparing for a disaster. This included an assessment of the population to be supplied, especially retirement homes and other communal accommodation.

The media received initial information at the city's weekly press conference at 13:00.

After it became clear that repairing the leak in the pipeline would be highly complex, the crisis team met for the first time at 2:30 pm. This team brought together experts from the major housing companies, the municipal utilities, the fire department, Jena's local public transport system, the municipal utilities and the city administration. It met four times until 22:00.

From the outset, it was prepared for the maximum case, which envisaged supplying around 15,000 people for two days without a heating connection. All human and material resources were pooled, emergency accommodation was prepared in hotels and, as a precaution, in schools, additional material such as mobile heaters was requested, communication was coordinated, a telephone hotline was set up, support for the emergency services was organized and - most importantly - information for the residents of the affected buildings was coordinated.

Solidarity of the population is exemplary

A joint effort that was supported in detail by the emergency declared in the afternoon. For example, it was exceptionally permissible to take in more than one person in someone else's household, which would not actually have been permitted due to the current contact restrictions, but now offered a quick way to help.

After locating the damaged area, repairing it overnight, restarting the district heating supply and ensuring normal operation, the initial summary is that the emergency response was successful. The agencies involved worked hand in hand in a coordinated manner. Among others, 160 firefighters, special forces from the municipal utilities and the STREICHER company, the police, the German Armed Forces, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief and the housing companies were deployed on site.

The crisis management team of the city of Jena would like to express its sincere thanks:

All of this was able to succeed because the emergency services worked in a concentrated manner to resolve the problem and the adverse accompanying circumstances. The crisis management team would like to express its sincere thanks for this. We would also like to expressly acknowledge the voluntary commitment of many hundreds of helping hands and hearts from the local population. It is nice to see that people can rely on each other in a situation like this.