Overview
- Park employees called around 6 a.m. after smoke and flames were seen issuing from openings in the trunk at Schlosspark Schönhausen in Pankow.
- The approximately 35-meter-tall, three-meter-wide plane tree is partially hollow and forms part of a group of trees surrounding a fountain at Schloss Schönhausen.
- Firefighters, park staff and a tree expert devised a staged approach tailored to the tree’s interior cavities.
- Crews extinguished the lower trunk, sealed lower holes with sand, then flooded the stem through an opening about seven meters up to smother embers.
- The fire department said the foam was an environmentally compatible concentrate, work continued into midday, and the Niederschönhausen volunteer brigade planned follow-up checks later Friday.