The federal government is clearing ammunition in Mitholz – 31 residents still live in the danger perimeter and will have to move soon.
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The clearing of the former ammunition depot in Mitholz BE is progressing step by step: The federal government has removed hundreds of kilograms of ammunition from the former ammunition depot in the village of Mitholz in the Bernese Oberland.
Experts from the Defense Department VBS recovered 69 ammunition objects with a caliber larger than 20 millimeters. The recovered ammunition weighed around 750 kilograms.
Grenades next to the school building
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Next to the Mitholz schoolhouse alone, the VBS found around 50 grenades at a depth of up to 30 centimeters, as the VBS announced to the media.
The VBS found around 50 grenades next to the Mitholz schoolhouse alone.
Archive: Keystone/JULIEN GRINDAT
The DDPS has so far examined 15 hectares of meadows near the old ammunition depot and cleared an area the size of four football fields of ammunition.
31 people are still living in the security perimeter
From 2032, people will no longer be allowed to live in the area defined as the security perimeter. The federal government has now found a solution with almost all residents who have to leave the area.
According to Adrian Goetschi, the VBS project manager, 31 people still live in the security perimeter and will one day have to leave Mitholz. “Most people are looking to build a new property. The moving date is within sight,” he says in an interview with SRF. You only have to look for a solution with individual people. “The conversations take place at eye level,” emphasizes Matti.
Ammunition is buried up to one meter deep in the ground
In December 1947 there were large explosions in the army’s former ammunition depot near Mitholz. The depot partially collapsed and nine people died from boulders being thrown through the air. Dozens of houses were destroyed.
The Mitholz disaster in 1947
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Image 1 of 10. After the night of terror in Mitholz, rubble and damaged houses bear witness to the disaster. It was the night of December 19th to 20th, 1947, when one of the largest explosion disasters in Switzerland occurred in the municipality of Kandergrund in the Bernese Oberland.
Image source: Keystone.
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Image 2 of 10. A series of serious explosions occur in a Swiss army ammunition depot. Around 4,000 of the 7,000 tons of stored ammunition explode or burn. In the picture: The bricked-up tunnel entrances to the former ammunition depot.
Image source: VBS.
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Image 3 of 10. One of the tunnels after the explosion.
Image source: VBS.
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Image 4 of 10. The rock wall in which the ammunition depot is located collapses, releasing around 250,000 cubic meters of rock.
Image source: VBS.
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Image 5 of 10. Nine people die, several are injured. 200 people are homeless.
Image source: Keystone.
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Image 6 of 10. The explosions are so powerful that 40 houses are destroyed or damaged. The material damage is estimated at 100 million francs, which is equivalent to 490 million francs today.
Image source: VBS.
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Picture 7 of 10. The funeral service for the victims of the explosion disaster takes place in the Kandergrund church.
Image source: Keystone.
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Image 8 of 10. The disaster triggers a wave of solidarity among the population. Donations and packages of all kinds soon began piling up in the schoolroom in Kandergrund (photo from January 1948).
Image source: Keystone.
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Image 9 of 10. Cleaning up after the disaster: Railway workers repair the tracks. The railway line was interrupted for days and the Blausee-Mitholz station of the Lötschbergbahn was destroyed.
Image source: Keystone.
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Image 10 of 10. Where to put the ammunition residue? In order to counter the dangers posed by outdated ammunition stocks, the Federal Council decided in March 1948 to dump 2,500 tons of artillery ammunition in Lakes Thun, Brienz and Lucerne. In addition, around 1,500 tons of residue from Mitholz were dumped into Lake Thun.
Image source: VBS.
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The DDPS assumes that there are still 3,500 gross tons of ammunition with several hundred tons of explosives in the collapsed parts of the facility and in the cone of rubble. The ammunition ejected from the system during the explosion sometimes flew several hundred meters and penetrated up to a meter deep into the ground.
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