Overview

• A fire broke out on a rail embankment north of Cologne on the evening of July 5, forcing a Deutsche Bahn regional train to stop on open track for firefighting operations.
• During the roughly two-hour delay, firefighters dealt with a medical emergency on board and technicians addressed a fault in the train’s systems.
• Berufsfeuerwehr personnel carried out a full evacuation of around 340 travelers and escorted them onto a waiting relief train.
• All passengers received medical attention as needed and the fire was extinguished shortly after the evacuation, allowing normal service to resume.
• The episode follows similar vegetation-related shutdowns and technical failures on German rail lines, underscoring gaps in trackside vegetation management and infrastructure maintenance