Fire at Bratislava Christmas market

[Coral]

Had a memorable day in Bratislava today:

 

[Coral]

I just googled the story not that I am back on the ship and here is a link to a story:

 

https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20972702/a-stall-at-bratislavas-christmas-market-caught-on-fire.html

 

It was weird - I was at the back of that market and talking to a vendor about a pastry. He then saw smoke and said "fire" and then looked at me and said "do you want one". I had almost taken a picture of the building which I thought looked unique. It had gold doors and police were outside of it guarding it when this happened (at least I think it was the same building). We were told it was an insurance building by our guides later on. I have gotten in trouble taking pictures of police previously so I didn't take a picture before and then this happened 5 minutes later.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Coral

[pully8]

Thank goodness it did not spread. The article said a gas bottle exploded?

Many would be mindful about potential terror attacks, thankfully not the case in this incident. Many Christmas markets have increased security measures in recent years.

 

 

[JohnKen3]

Great photos. 

[dogs4fun]

thank you for sharing - was just there a few weeks ago.

[puppycanducruise]

Wow.

Thanks for sharing the photos.

[bubbulz]

I heard about this from our guide in Budapest the day before yesterday. Any update, or is all pretty much back to normal at the market? Thank goodness it sounds like it was pretty well contained! 

[Coral]

17 minutes ago, bubbulz said:

I heard about this from our guide in Budapest the day before yesterday. Any update, or is all pretty much back to normal at the market? Thank goodness it sounds like it was pretty well contained! 

We heard it was going to open the next day again. Since I didn't make it back, can not confirm it.

 

Bratislava has 2 Christmas markets. One seemed to be mostly food and drink. This one seemed to have a little bit of everything. I almost stayed in Vienna (as our ship could not sail) but did go. We were thinking the markets in Bratislava would have different things. I am glad to check Slovakia off my list but Vienna offers so much more - if I was to do it again, I would stay in Vienna.

[bubbulz]

3 minutes ago, Coral said:

We heard it was going to open the next day again. Since I didn't make it back, can not confirm it.

 

Bratislava has 2 Christmas markets. One seemed to be mostly food and drink. This one seemed to have a little bit of everything. I almost stayed in Vienna (as our ship could not sail) but did go. We were thinking the markets in Bratislava would have different things. I am glad to check Slovakia off my list but Vienna offers so much more - if I was to do it again, I would stay in Vienna.

 

Thanks for the information! I'm quite happy to stay in Vienna since I'm not crazy about long bus rides (and I've already checked Slovakia off my list  )

[2boomerstravel]

We were on a Crystal Tour (Crystal Mozart Christmas Markets Cruise) passing the market stall when it caught fire!  Fire trucks had trouble getting to the site because of solid security barricades.   We posted a video of events here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goiRvCeN_qQ

 

[I like vacation]

44 minutes ago, 2boomerstravel said:

We were on a Crystal Tour (Crystal Mozart Christmas Markets Cruise) passing the market stall when it caught fire!  Fire trucks had trouble getting to the site because of solid security barricades.   We posted a video of events here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goiRvCeN_qQ

 

Nice video.  Looks like fire extinguishers should be a requirement for the vendors.

[2boomerstravel]

Yes.  Multitude of questions. Wooden vendor stalls 50% cooking with open flames and no fire extinguishers!  The vendor apparently was not even licensed to be there.  So where were the City inspectors, its a 30ft long booth and no one noticed it?

very lucky the gas tank did not explode.  We saw at least 5 fire trucks driving round in circles trying to find a way in past the solid security barriers.

[I like vacation]

17 minutes ago, 2boomerstravel said:

Yes.  Multitude of questions. Wooden vendor stalls 50% cooking with open flames and no fire extinguishers!  The vendor apparently was not even licensed to be there.  So where were the City inspectors, its a 30ft long booth and no one noticed it?

very lucky the gas tank did not explode.  We saw at least 5 fire trucks driving round in circles trying to find a way in past the solid security barriers.

Looks like the only brave person was the guy who threw water on the fire twice.  I wonder of the adjacent stores had fire extinguishers available to assist.  The fire looked like it could be contained initially if better equipment was available.