Firefighters awakened in the middle of the night Wednesday were stunned to learn the assignment was their own fire station.
The source of the inferno was a car that caught fire in the vehicle hall of the newly constructed station in Stadtallendorf, Germany, according to German news site Hessenschau.
The fire station, which officially opened in January and cost more than $17 million to build, did not have a fire alarm system installed as it's not a requirement, according to the president of the Hesse State Fire Brigade Association.
The fire also engulfed all of the station's fire trucks, leaving town officials scrambling to create an emergency plan that will allow them to use other districts' vehicles to offer fire protection to residents, Hessenschau reported.
Approximately 170 firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, which the district fire inspector emphasized was an emotional affair.
"This is the nightmare of every firefighter," the district fire inspector told Hessenschau. "No one wants to have to put out the fire in their own fire station." He added that "the quieter the operation becomes, the more the thoughts circle."
The total estimated damage is a staggering $21 to $26 million, and given the damage, officials said they will be investigating what caused the fire. Fortunately, no one was injured in the inferno.
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