Imminent crash: Fire brigade saves metal ball from church tower in Bochum!

Imminent crash: Fire brigade saves metal ball from church tower in Bochum!

An unusual fire brigade operation kept the citizens of Bochum on tenterhooks on Monday. At the top of the church tower of the Melanchthon Church in Bochum-Ehrenfeld, a metal ball weighing 45 kg, which is attached at a height of 54 meters, threatened to come loose. The authorities were alerted at 2:20 p.m. after parts of the metal cladding had fallen from the tower the day before. But while there was hustle and bustle everywhere in the city, the fire brigade's mission was to act quickly and efficiently to prevent something worse from happening Newsflash24 reported.

But it wasn't that easy to use. Common means such as turntable ladders or fire brigade cranes were not used. A telescopic mast from the BP factory fire brigade in Gelsenkirchen proved to be inadequate. Finally, a 72 meter high telescopic mast from a specialist company in Essen had to be brought in. The emergency services worked quickly and ensured that the ball was secured with a net and finally removed properly. This was then handed over to those responsible for the parish. Due to the operation, the Königsallee road leading out of town was repeatedly closed in order to ensure the safety of passers-by and emergency services.

The deployment and its consequences

“If the bullet had not been removed, Königsallee and adjacent side streets could have been completely closed in the long term,” explained a fire department spokesman. Around 20 emergency services from the city center guard and the Bochum-Mitte volunteer fire department were involved in this extraordinary incident, which astonished many residents and passers-by. While the operation was being carried out, the city was particularly keen to find a quick solution so as not to unnecessarily hinder traffic.

These types of fire brigade operations are now nothing new. An incident that occurred in Detmold on April 2, 2025 shows how important a quick reaction is in such situations. There, the fire department also had to secure a huge metal ball that was hanging on two ropes and threatened to fall. This sphere weighed about 1.8 tons and was 4.5 meters in diameter. The operation lasted almost an hour and a half before the ball could be safely removed calf reported.

Conclusion and outlook

The fire department has once again proven that it has a good hand in emergencies and can also deal with unusual challenges. Citizen safety is always a priority. It is particularly important to inform the public about such incidents and to make them aware of the dangers that exist near deployment sites. As in Duisburg at ThyssenKrupp, where residents had to react immediately, it shows that the fire brigade in North Rhine-Westphalia ensures safety around the clock. Local reporting and current information on operations can be found at derwesten.de.