The police are looking for witnesses and clues in a case of negligent arson, which could very well have ended in a devastating conflagration on Sunday on Kesselberg. As the officials report, two police officers from the Oberbayern Süd police headquarters were deployed on the Kesselberg route of the B 11 to secure traffic on that day because the men’s road bike race of the European Championship 2022 was being held there. During the operation, the two officers who were stationed in the area of the so-called Helmer Hütte noticed a clear smell of smoke. So they searched the area for a fire. A few meters from their location, they found a “stump with a significant nest of embers,” according to the report. The embers could have “expanded very quickly to a large fire given the current drought and risk of forest fires,” according to the police. The two officers immediately extinguished the source of the fire with the fire extinguisher in the emergency vehicle. However, by the time the Kochel fire brigade, which was immediately alerted, arrived and brought 20 emergency services, the embers had already spread through the dry forest floor. The fire brigade therefore had to extinguish the area with a considerable amount of water in order to avert the danger.
According to the police, the search for the cause of the fire has shown that it is very likely that a previously unknown person had carelessly thrown away a cigarette butt, which then led to the embers developing. Therefore, is now determined because of negligent arson. Anyone with information on this is asked to call 08041/76106-273.
At the same time, the officials are urgently appealing, especially in the current dry phase with a high risk of forest fires, to exercise the greatest caution and never throw away cigarette butts or light an open fire in the open air. “In the prevailing situation, this can lead to devastating fires, as can currently be observed in Saxon Switzerland,” says the report. “In addition, the last serious forest fire at the beginning of 2017 should be remembered, when an open fire on New Year’s Eve caused a major fire with very high damage in the Kochel area,” concludes the police.
On New Year’s Eve from 2016 to 2017, a campfire got out of control on the Jochberg near the Kesselberg route and resulted in a devastating forest fire. The police are currently warning that the prolonged drought can easily lead to a wildfire again.
(Photo: Harry Wolfsbauer)