Fire partially reignited
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Extinguishing work in Beelitz continues – embers cause concern
In Beelitz, people returned to their homes on Monday. Rain brought relief, the forest fire is under control. But some flames flared up again, and the extinguishing work continued overnight.
- Forest fire is under control, but not yet the all-clear
- There are still a few embers in Beelitz
- all evacuations have been lifted
- Firefighting operations are to continue into the night
The devastating forest fires in Brandenburg near Beelitz and Treuenbrietzen have been extinguished – but the fire brigade must continue to keep the embers in the forest areas around the asparagus town under control. These sit up to 70 centimeters deep in the ground and could stay there for weeks, said the spokeswoman for the Potsdam Mittelmark district, Andrea Metzler. The fire could be reignited in dry and windy conditions, so firefighters would continue to monitor the situation closely.
On Monday, 230 firefighters had watered the fire areas near Beelitz. These should also stay the night, said Metzler in the evening. Temperatures should rise again on Tuesday.
The mayor of the city of Beelitz, Bernhard Knuth, announced late Monday evening that the fire was still under control. “Currently, the fire brigade, federal police and armed forces are in action to secure the extinguishing work beyond the night.”
Two critical areas
In the area around Beelitz, a police helicopter with a thermal imaging camera was on Monday to locate embers, as district spokesman Kai-Uwe Schwinzert told rbb in the evening. The focus is on the RB33 railway line south of Seddin and a substation in the forest, where smoke could be seen again. Here will now be specifically deleted.
A total of 264 hectares is affected by the forest fire. According to the district, the temperature in the ground is still up to 500 degrees.
Residents can return to houses
Meanwhile, the evacuations announced on Sunday were lifted, and the affected residents were able to return to their homes on Monday morning. Mayor Bernhard Knuth (independent) advised on Monday morning on the City website [beelitz.de] but still caution. “The fire is under control, but not yet extinguished. Even if the current rain is helping us a lot, there can still be heavy smoke.”
Schools and laga closed
As a result of the forest fires in Beelitz, the state garden show will also be closed on Tuesday.
Three schools were also not open on Monday. According to the Ministry of Education in Potsdam, the Diesterweg elementary school, Solar high school and the Sally-Bein-Gymnasium were affected. Emergency care for the students should be guaranteed, it said.
Regional rail traffic is also affected by the forest fire. The RE7 and RB23 railway lines run through the fire area and were interrupted on Sunday afternoon. While the trains on line RB23 ran again on Monday, according to the railways, all trains on line RE7 between Beelitz-Heilstätten and Michendorf are expected to be canceled until Monday evening.
District Administrator: It is still too early to give the all-clear
The district administrator of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, which was hit by forest fires, Marko Köhler (SPD), described the situation around Treuenbrietzen and Beelitz on Monday as “clearly relaxed, but not yet mastered and finished”. At a joint press conference with the Brandenburg Environment and Forestry Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) in Beelitz in the morning, Koehler said it was still too early to give the all-clear.
He thanked the more than 1,500 rescue workers who also came from Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt to help. “They all did superhuman things,” says Köhler.
Forest Minister Vogel agreed. Many things went better this time than in previous forest fires. For example, the Bundeswehr helicopters “were deployed very quickly”, communication between the parties involved had improved, and there was enough extinguishing water available.
This is how the forest fires raged near Treuenbrietzen and Beelitz
Forest Minister Vogel wants to better protect endangered places
At the same time Vogel, like Köhler before him, emphasized that the rain was a decisive factor: “If it hadn’t rained, we would have had a disaster situation this morning that would have surpassed anything we could have imagined in Brandenburg.” The situation was extremely dangerous and highly dramatic, said Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) during another visit to the fire area. A barrage of fire was only stopped 200 meters before the first residential buildings in Beelitz.
For the future, Vogel warned that particularly endangered villages in the middle of forests such as Fichtenwalde, Borkheide and Borkwalde should be better protected. More fire protection lanes would have to be created. Something like this cannot only happen when the fire is right in front of the houses. This must now be tackled together with the districts, but also with private forest owners, says Vogel. The forest conversion towards more deciduous and mixed forests and fewer pine trees must also be accelerated – in state areas and private areas.
Residents had to leave houses
The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon and within a few hours it had spread to an area of up to 200 hectares. The fire was quickly assessed as extremely dangerous because the flames spread through the treetops.
“You see something like that very rarely – rather somewhere on television that it affects other countries,” said the country’s forest fire protection officer, Raimund Engel, on Sunday to rbb. The fire therefore spread rapidly. In the evening, several streets on the outskirts had to be evacuated. At times, around 1,000 emergency services were on site at the same time.
Broadcast: rbb24 Brandenburg aktuell, June 20th, 2022, 7:30 p.m