BERLIN (AFP) — Firefighters battled to bring a major blaze under control at the Berlin Philharmonic on Tuesday that musicians and staff at the concert hall described as a disaster.
By early evening some 130 firemen were still on the scene at the famed home of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the heart of the German capital as smoke continued to escape from its sloped roof.
They had doused the building with water to prevent the fire spreading and used thermal image cameras to locate its source, ripping up sections of the roof where insulation material had caught fire.
Four hours after the blaze began, the fire department said it was too soon to say it was under control but were adamant that there was no risk that the building would burn down or collapse due to fire damage.
"The fire had not spread through the inside of the building," spokesman Martin Trenn said, but added that the Philharmonic could suffer severe water damage.
"We think that the fire originated in the insulation material in the roof."
The blaze began just before 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) as a lunchtime concert in the foyer was coming to an end, sending thick columns of brown smoke into the air.
Several hundred musicians and concert-goers were evacuated and all escaped injury, the fire department's Jens Peter Wilke said.
Designed by architect Hans Scharoun and opened in 1963, the yellow, wing-tipped Philharmonic located near the Potsdamer Platz square is a Berlin landmark. Repairs had recently been done to the roof.
The Philharmonic has hosted some of the world's greatest conductors, including Herbert von Karajan. Its current principal conductor is Simon Rattle.
The auditorium's acoustics are considered to be among the best in the world and its design influenced the construction of many other concert halls.
The orchestra had been due to hold a major rehearsal an hour after the fire started for two Beethoven and Berlioz concerts with renowned Italian conductor Claudio Abbado at the weekend, in what was intended as a highlight of the season.
"Thank God the fire broke out before," said Pamela Rosenberg, general manager of the orchestra.
Ralf Bauer Diefenbach, in charge of video transmission of the Abbado concert, called the fire "a catastrophe".
Solene Kermarret, a French violinist, said she was in another rehearsal when the smoke alarm sounded.
"We all rushed out. This is strange, it is almost as though my house were on fire. It is awful to see it covered in smoke."
She said the musicians had been allowed to fetch their instruments, some of them highly valuable, before they were rushed outside.
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