Cottbus practices for an emergency: lightning strike at a major event!

Cottbus practices for an emergency: lightning strike at a major event!

On Friday, July 4, 2025, Cottbus becomes the setting for a large -scale disaster protection exercise that takes place in the picturesque Spreauenpark. In this scenario, a violent storm is simulated with a lightning strike during a festival that attracts around 5,000 guests. Over 400 emergency services, including emergency services, fire brigade, police, THW and Bundeswehr, will participate in this complex exercise. The aim is to test the processes under realistic conditions and to further optimize the communication and medical structures, such as rbb24

The exercise uses the demanding situation of around 90 "injured", which are realistically made into different shock states in order to give the emergency services a feeling for real emergencies. Eckhard Nagel, the CEO of the Medical University of Lausitz, emphasizes the importance of the exercise for the medical care of seriously injuries. The "injured" are finally transported to the Medical University of Lausitz - Carl Thiem in order to rehearse the entire process from arriving at the accident.

traffic impairments and safety instructions

During the exercise, the Spreauenpark remains closed for the public traffic. Local residents should also expect impairments in road traffic, since parking spaces such as Sandower Dreieck and Zoo are partially closed. This enables the emergency services to work unhindered and efficiently. The exercise starts at 12:00 p.m. with the alarm at 4:00 p.m., and the expected end is set for the evening, like Niederlausitz Aktuell.

In the coming days, further exercises in other cities of Brandenburg will also be planned. For example, a partial fall of the roof will be rehearsed on Saturday in the Potsdam Karl-Liebknecht Stadium. These actions should serve to significantly improve the operational readiness and to further optimize logistics in the event of real crisis situations. Around 170 emergency services, 50 rescue vehicles and a helicopter will be used in Potsdam to test and refine the processes there too.

The ambitious exercise scenarios should not only simulate the emergency, but also aim to develop suggestions for improvement in order to be able to react even better to real emergencies in the future. The participating organizations, including the emergency services, the fire brigade and the police, work in advance on the perfect coordination, so that everything runs like clockwork during these exercises.