Status: 09/05/2022 09:58 a.m
The fire under the Brocken summit has reached a moor area and could aggravate the situation. Meanwhile, two fire-fighting planes and fire-fighting helicopters are fighting the forest fire in the Harz Mountains from the air.
The fire brigade and the Harz district are concerned about the development at night, as they told Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) in Saxony-Anhalt in the morning. Moor fires are difficult to extinguish, said district fire chief Kai-Uwe Lohse. District Administrator Thomas Balcerowski (CDU) assumes that the extinguishing work will take days. Firefighters and other forces have been on the ground and in the air since dawn. In addition to the aircraft, a total of ten helicopters are to be used today. Meteorologist Alexander König warned that if the fire is not quickly brought under control with the additional support, the increasing wind could significantly aggravate the situation in the next few hours. Rain is not in sight, says König.
Firefighting aircraft should contribute significantly to the operation
One of the two fire-fighting aircraft in Braunschweig: The machines can hold 6,000 liters of water.
The authorities hope a lot from the use of the air. The mountain slope below the summit is difficult to access, and there are mostly dead spruce trees that burn easily. The fire brigade’s fire-fighting aircraft can absorb and drop more than 6,000 liters of water. They were requested via the central coordination office in Brussels as part of the European aid project “RescEU-IT” and arrived in Braunschweig at the weekend. In addition, there are around 300 firefighters on site from the Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony sides, as the operations manager of the Braunlage fire brigade said on Sunday. According to the district, the burning area had grown to around 150 hectares by yesterday. District Administrator Balcerowski had declared a disaster. Police officers secured the area around the Brocken, which is closed to visitors. The town of Schierke, which belongs to Wernigerode, is still not at risk, it said.
Brocken cleared – Berg is no longer approached
The fire was discovered around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday near the Goethebahnhof vantage point. The Goetheweg to the Brocken is one of the most frequented hiking trails in the Harz National Park. Because of the heavy smoke, the authorities cleared the highest Harz mountain, which is in Saxony-Anhalt and borders directly on Lower Saxony. Tourists were brought down to the valley with the Brockenbahn, among other things. The Harz narrow-gauge railways are currently not running on the 1,141-meter-high mountain. As the railway company announced on its website, there is limited train service between Wernigerode and Drei Annen Hohne.
Heavy forest fire already in mid-August
A forest fire at the foot of the Brocken near Schierke had already raged for several days in mid-August. According to the national park administration, 3.6 hectares of spruce forest were destroyed.
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