Darmstadt, Germany, February 5, 2026, 20:15 CET
- A fire at the GSI Helmholtz Centre in Darmstadt forced an evacuation and prompted warnings to nearby residents.
- Hesse’s science minister said a test phase planned for December for the FAIR accelerator project has been postponed indefinitely.
- Officials blamed a short circuit in the accelerator’s high-voltage power supply; no injuries were reported.
A fire at a German heavy-ion research centre has forced officials to delay a key test phase for the FAIR particle accelerator project after flames broke out at the GSI Helmholtz Centre in Darmstadt. “It is a black day,” Hesse science minister Timon Gremmels said, adding that testing planned for December had been postponed indefinitely. “Fortunately, we have no casualties so far,” said Christian Wagner, operations manager for the Darmstadt fire department. Aa
The blaze hits a site that already runs accelerators for heavy ions — atoms that carry a positive charge after losing some electrons — and is being expanded for the new FAIR complex. The postponement adds fresh uncertainty to a project meant to support experiments on how matter behaves under extreme conditions.
It also put an uncomfortable spotlight on safety around an industrial facility that can involve radiation controls when operating. “The site was evacuated, there are no injuries, and no hazardous materials were released,” a GSI spokesperson said, as residents nearby were asked to keep doors and windows closed and turn off ventilation systems as a precaution. A radiation protection officer told Reuters they had not been called into action. Reuters
The centre blamed a short circuit in the accelerator’s high-voltage power supply, which occurred as staff were preparing to ramp up the existing system, a spokesperson said. The spokesman said he could not yet give a damage estimate, while noting that the construction site for the new facility was not affected. Spektrum
The alarm came in around 6:30 a.m. local time, and about 130 firefighters and additional rescue personnel were deployed, officials said. Smoke from the blaze could be seen from several kilometres away, local media footage showed.
A spokesperson at the site said the fire damaged cables, electrical equipment and office furnishings. The cost of the damage has not been disclosed.
Heavy-ion accelerators concentrate positively charged atoms into beams and drive them to extremely high speeds within magnetic fields. The centre says its work helps researchers probe the building blocks of matter and the evolution of the universe, and can feed into applications in technology and medicine, including cancer treatment.
Officials said it remained unclear how badly the UNILAC linear accelerator — a key part of the accelerator chain on the site — was affected. A linear accelerator speeds particles along a straight path before they are fed into later stages.
But the timeline is now the big unknown. If damaged high-voltage equipment and cabling need major replacement, the delay could stretch well beyond the postponed December test window, and push out other steps linked to the FAIR project.
Fire crews expected to keep working into late Thursday as they cooled the area, and residents were again urged to keep windows shut and switch off ventilation until the smoke cleared.
