Forest fires in Brandenburg and Saxony are spreading
“Have to reckon with blazing fires again and again”
“We still have an extremely frightening situation,” says Christian Heinrich-Jaschinski (CDU), district administrator of the Elbe-Elster district, about the forest fires in Brandenburg. Strong gusts of wind are again expected in the area, which could cause the flames to flare up again.
Hundreds of firefighters are fighting several forest fires in Brandenburg and Saxony. The burned area is partially contaminated with ammunition. Several emergency services were injured fighting the fire, a piglet farm burned out.
DThe situation in the forest fire areas of Brandenburg and Saxony is still extremely critical – the fires were still out of control on Tuesday afternoon. In Brandenburg there was a fire in a forest and meadow area of 8.5 square kilometers – almost 1200 soccer fields in size. Potsdam Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) got an idea of the situation on site.
Near Rehfeld in the Brandenburg Elbe-Elster district not far from the Saxon border, 450 emergency services fought against an 850-hectare fire on Tuesday. Wind gusts of up to 60 kilometers per hour were announced to the emergency services. “Everything depends on the weather conditions,” said district spokesman Torsten Hoffgaard in the morning.
Two Bundeswehr firefighting helicopters support the fire brigades from the air, three more were expected. A police helicopter assisted in the reconnaissance of the situation. The fire-fighting helicopters took the water from a nearby bathing lake in the Kiebitz recreation area, so the water was blocked, said the district spokesman. According to him, the helicopters can hold 5,000 liters of water per charge.
A Sikorsky CH-53 Bundeswehr helicopter flies with extinguishing water to fight forest fires in the Elbe-Elster district
Source: dpa/Jan Woitas
The area of the fire is partially contaminated with ammunition – this is another reason why extinguishing from the air is necessary. As a result of detonations in the ground, new areas suspected of being used for munitions were discovered that had not yet been recorded on maps, reported Brandenburg’s Minister of the Interior, Stübgen, on site. Emergency services cannot enter such areas and can only extinguish them from the outside and from the air. Stübgen assumed that it would take weeks to completely extinguish the major fire in Elbe-Elster.
Around 600 residents had to leave their homes on Monday. The evacuation for the towns of Kölsa and Rehfeld was lifted on Tuesday. At least seven emergency services were injured in the course of the operation, six of them were taken to the hospital, the district said. In addition, a piglet breeding facility in the Kölsa settlement burned down and many animals died.
Firefighters try to extinguish a burning building in Kölsa
Source: dpa/Frank Hammerschmidt
According to forest fire expert Philipp Haase, the major fire in Brandenburg differs from other fires in the country. “We’re talking about a tree crown fire, the fire runs from crown to crown and finds a lot of combustible material like needles,” said the deputy forest fire protection officer on Tuesday of the German Press Agency. The fire burns above the tops of the trees at a height of up to 25 meters. The wind speeds are also higher there than on the forest floor, and the flames could spread faster, according to Haase.
Forest fires spread from the Czech Republic to Saxony
In the Saxon Switzerland National Park, the number of Places of action around the Großer Winterberg according to the district office spokesman increased from three to five. He was unable to provide any information on the exact area that was on fire in the impassable, rocky area. On Tuesday, 254 firefighters and forces from the federal and state police were in action. Two water cannons, each with a capacity of 10,000 liters, and two helicopters were on site to fight the fire. Four Bundeswehr helicopters were also to provide support.
“The current forest fire season in Saxony is devastating,” said Saxony’s Environment Minister Wolfram Günther on Tuesday, according to the announcement. “This forest fire is a tragedy for the region and for all people who live from tourism.” The Greens politician asked the population and tourists to avoid the fire area and to adhere to the entry bans. “We are experiencing the consequences of the climate crisis here with drought, heat and dried out forests.”
A firefighting helicopter is in action in Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic on the border with Saxony
Source: dpa/Robert Michael
The fire spread from the Bohemian Switzerland National Park in the Czech Republic to the Saxon Switzerland National Park on Monday. Tourists were urged to avoid the Hintere Sächsische Schweiz area, the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district office announced on Tuesday.
In the Czech Republic, the situation with the forest fire in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park near the border with Saxony has worsened dramatically. More than 400 firefighters fought the blaze on Tuesday, a spokesman said. They were supported by police and army helicopters. The forest fire spread to an area of around 30 hectares.
But elsewhere in Europe, forest areas continued to burn, for example in Greece, where the risk of further fires is also high on Tuesday. A forest fire in the southern part of the island of Lesvos, which was still not under control on Monday, has already destroyed around 1,700 hectares. For Tuesday, the fire brigade again spoke of a “very high risk of forest fires” for Athens and the surrounding area as well as the island of Euboea and the islands of the eastern Aegean. There is also a “high risk of forest fire” in large parts of the country.
While the forest fires on the southern French Atlantic coast south of Bordeaux are slowly coming under control, the persistent heat in the Mediterranean is causing concern due to rising water temperatures. The French Observatory for Tornadoes and Severe Thunderstorms has now described the water temperatures, which have risen to almost 30 degrees, as exceptional and very worrying.