Car fire causes chaos on the B3 near Ettlingen - endless traffic jams!

Car fire causes chaos on the B3 near Ettlingen - endless traffic jams!

On Thursday morning, July 3, 2025, a car caught fire on the B3 near Ettlingen. The incident occurred between the Seehof intersection and the Wattkopf tunnel, and police responded immediately by closing both lanes. This measure led to significant traffic disruptions in the direction of the Wattkopf Tunnel, which was not accessible during the fire. The traffic jam didn't take long to arrive and led to massive evasive traffic to the core town of Ettlingen. The A5 junction Ettlingen was also affected.

The fire department was alerted around 9:09 a.m. and found the vehicle already engulfed in flames when they arrived. Fortunately, it was not an electric vehicle, which made it easier to intervene quickly, according to the emergency services, who were on site with four vehicles and 13 firefighters. After intensive extinguishing work carried out by a team using respiratory protection, the fire was brought under control around 10 a.m. The police suspect that a technical defect was the cause of the fire. There were no injuries.

Wattkopf Tunnel and traffic congestion

The backlog gradually cleared until the tunnel was reopened shortly after 10 a.m. However, the cleaning work on the road continued until around 11 a.m., which further increased the traffic load in Ettlingen. In addition, traffic was also additionally restricted due to a partial road closure on Pforzheimer Straße due to a large construction site. This fact becomes noticeable again and again, especially during peak times.

Interestingly, a major fire brigade exercise took place on Thursday evening in the already closed Wattkopf tunnel. The exercise, which took place under realistic conditions, simulated several scenarios, including a traffic accident with several people trapped and a vehicle fire. More than 60 emergency services, including the Waldbronn and Malsch volunteer fire departments and the DRK local association Ettlingen e.V., were involved and were able to carry out the exercise successfully thanks to the cooperation between the organizations. According to a spokesman for the fire department, everything went smoothly and the exercise assumptions were also processed effectively.

Overall, the events in Ettlingen, such as the numerous traffic disruptions and the fire drills, are in the larger context of the constantly increasing traffic volumes in cities. A phenomenon that is not only evident locally, but also in larger metropolitan areas such as Berlin, where accidents often occur due to high traffic density and inappropriate driving style. These situations always provide valuable insights into the importance of good emergency and transport infrastructure.

With this in mind, it remains to be seen how the traffic situation in Ettlingen and the surrounding area will develop in the coming days, especially since the construction sites are making the whole thing even more complicated. The authorities are required to act quickly and in a solution-oriented manner to ensure the safety of all road users.

For more information surrounding this incident, see [bnn]'s reports here, as well as [Einsatzreport24] and [tag24] for additional perspectives on traffic warnings in other cities.