Zerohedge also posted the story today eliciting this cogent response from a premium account, Haus-Targaryen -
I am directly involved in the legal cleanup of this and can provide a little more detail as to what actually happened (Tyler, reach out to me you have my email if you'd like to verify my identity here).
The city of Berlin required the hotel reduce the ambient temperature of the hotel lobby to save on energy due to sanctions. Its been abnormally cold in Berlin the past few nights dipping down to -11°C last night and -12°C the night before that. The water is heated to a constant temperature above 30°C for many of the fish species that lived in the tank.
As the nights got colder and colder, the lower ambient temperature of the air surrounding the tank likely started causing deformations and hairline cracks in the bottom of the tank where the pressure is the greatest. Last night at -11° caused the ambient temperature to drop too low given the reduced heating in the lobby and is what it looks like caused the "sudden unintentional disassembly"/catastrophic failure of the tank.
Everyone is already lawyering up including the city, the HVAC manufacturer, tank manufacturer, HVAC installer, building engineer, hotel - the litigation is going to be fun to watch and work on.
What isn't covered in the news is damage. The tank in 2003 cost €13 million. Today its orders of magnitude more expensive to replace, some of the fish were quite exotic and are expensive losses in and of themselves. Then you have the damage to the hotel lobby and façade, electrical components of the building in the three-story basement are also effected and large amounts of water went into the parking garage where many vehicles are parked not only from the hotel and offices but from an attached apartment complex to the hotel.
Losses are tens of millions. All because the city made the hotel turn down the heat. I imagine someone will be blaming Putin before too long.
Unless the hotel were aware aware of the danger that lowering the lobby heating posed to the tank, and informed the city of the danger, I don't see how the city laws can be blamed any more than negligence of the hotel.
Looks like everyone's lawyering up besides the one responsible - the city. Wonder if they'll even try to sue them for forcing them to lower their temps.
Zerohedge also posted the story today eliciting this cogent response from a premium account, Haus-Targaryen -
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/picture-devastation-worlds-largest-cylindrical-aquarium-bursts-1500-tropical-fish-inside
Edit to add archive: https://archive.vn/u76Z4
Unless the hotel were aware aware of the danger that lowering the lobby heating posed to the tank, and informed the city of the danger, I don't see how the city laws can be blamed any more than negligence of the hotel.
That's easy, because black people don't like the cold the city forcing the hotel to lower the temperature means the city if racist.
The clear solution to fix this is gibs.
Not that it will bring back any of the fish.
Looks like everyone's lawyering up besides the one responsible - the city. Wonder if they'll even try to sue them for forcing them to lower their temps.
City is already lawyered up. It goes without saying.
In fact, the taxpayers were nice enough to cover all legal fees!