Smouldering cable fire at Ravensburg substation prompts firefighting response

Jan 2023Published 29 Oct 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor

MinorThermal / fire

From the recordRoot cause Failed part What the record holds

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What happened

A smouldering fire on a cable broke out at a substation on Römerstraße in Ravensburg on Tuesday evening, according to a police press release dated 11 January 2023. The fire produced heavy smoke. Firefighters, about two dozen personnel in total, attended the site and extinguished the fire. Police found no indication of third-party involvement. The press release does not report injuries, the duration of the fire, damage to equipment or any effect on electricity supply.

Contributing factors

The press release describes a smouldering fire on a cable. It gives no further contributing factors. Police found no sign of third-party involvement.

Lessons learned

Cable connections and terminations in substations should be inspected for overheating, because a smouldering cable can produce heavy smoke before it is noticed.
Substation smoke and heat detection should alert operators remotely so that a developing electrical fault is caught early.
Operators should give local fire services up-to-date site plans and clearly marked isolation points so crews can make equipment safe quickly.

More lessons on electrical protection and isolation, detection and monitoring, fire suppression and firefighting, from every incident on the register.

Source

rv-news.de

Published 2026-10-29. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.

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The record behind this entry

The record behind EIR-2633 holds the site, the root cause, what failed and the fire service response as fields you can filter, count and export, with its source and their verification status. The cause is not hidden: the contributing factors above give it as the sources report it. The record adds it as a field. Companies are named in the roles the sources give them. Being named is not a finding of fault.

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Failed part: •••••••
Fire service response: ••••••••••
Sources: ••••••••

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Grid infrastructure incidents in Germany: 20 entries, with a free alert for the next one.

Substation and transformer fires: the counts, the latest entries and a free alert for the next one. Also: power line and cable failures.

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