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Fire Destroys Marktplatz At Wurstfest Grounds In New Braunfels

An early morning fire caused extensive damage to a portion of the Wurstfest grounds in New Braunfels Friday morning. The annual festival had just concluded its ten-day run on Sunday.

The Marktplatz, or food court, portion of the grounds was considered a total loss, while the Wursthalle suffered smoke and water damage.

Firefighters were called out to the grounds around 7:15 Thursday night for a fire that was quickly extinguished and may have rekindled. It was just after 6 a.m. when the second fire was reported.

New Braunfels, Seguin, San Marcos, Schertz, Cibolo, Canyon Lake and Selma Fire Departments spent an hour and a half fighting the blaze.

David Ferguson, the incident spokesperson for the City of New Braunfels, briefed the press Friday afternoon.

"The worst of the damage is to the Marktplatz area, and that is, at this point, considered a total loss," he explained. "The Wursthalle itself though is structurally intact at this point and all the firefighting efforts are to try and make sure that remains the case."

Kelly Kistner, chief of security and safety for Wurstfest, said the festival will go on in November 2020.

"We're sure that we're going to reopen because of the resiliency of the Wurstfest Association, the community, and the people that are here," Kistner said. "We're going to work together, and we're positive that we'll be back and that 60th Wurstfest will happen during that 175th year celebration of this city."

Kistner vowed that when they come back, it will be better than ever.

Lauren Terrazas can be reached at lauren@tpr.org and on Twitter at @terrazas_lauren