A forest fire broke out on a former military training area near Jüterbog in the Teltow-Fläming district. Forest fire protection officer Raimund Engel reported on Monday that the fire had spread to 10 hectares within two hours.
Several firefighters are on site. Initially, the rbb had reported. In June 2019, around 800 hectares burned there in the largest forest fire in decades.
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The fire is currently not under control, the regional control center of the Brandenburg (Havel) fire brigade told rbb on Monday afternoon. The fire smoke is moving in different directions, primarily in the direction of Luckenwalde.
The cities of Baruth/Mark and Trebbin as well as the communities of Nuthe-Urstromtal and Am Mellensee and the city of Treuenbrietzen are also affected, writes the rbb.
According to the “Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung”, large parts of the ex-military area where the fire is burning are still contaminated with ammunition.
The heat and shifting wind briefly aggravated the situation with the forest fire in the Saxon Gohrischheide (Meissen district) on the border with Brandenburg on Monday.
A spokeswoman for the Zeithain fire brigade told the German Press Agency that the fire had jumped north on one of the paths that closed the fire area. The fire is now under control again thanks to the use of a fire-fighting helicopter. “The helicopters relaxed it a bit.”
In addition, a forest moving machine from Gießen (Hesse) is expected, which is armored and cuts aisles in the ammunition-contaminated area of a former military training area.
“The emergency services can’t go in there at the moment, they stand five meters away on the sidewalk and wait for the fire to start,” said the spokeswoman.
Because of the smoke development, the operations management was moved from the forest to Lichtensee, a district of Wülknitz. “We hope that the rain announced for the night will not pass again and that the situation will relax,” said the spokeswoman for the fire brigade.
The announced Bundeswehr tanks should also be there soon. There are pioneers in the area on site to plan the route for the tanks, said the Saxon state fire director Dirk Schneider on Monday. The tanks are supposed to cut aisles in the forest to prevent the flames from spreading.
According to Schneider, the temperature on the ground is up to 400 degrees Celsius. If oxygen is supplied with wind, the flames could flare up again and again. “That’s the big challenge.”
That’s why the fire brigade is preparing for a longer deployment. The wind could cause embers to flare up again. A fire station has been set up on site in case a fire hazard should develop again.
On Sunday, hundreds of firefighters were still on site near Zeithain (Meissen district) and in the Mühlberg area (Elbe-Elster). The major fire broke out in Gohrischheide in Saxony on Thursday and spread to Mühlberg (Elbe-Elster) in Brandenburg on Friday. More than 800 hectares were at times in flames.
An interim evacuation of the local locations of Kröbeln and Kosilenzien in the city of Bad Liebenwerda was lifted again on Friday evening from 9 p.m.
According to the police, there had also been three forest fires and other fires in the Ostprignitz Ruppin district in the past few days.
First of all, a fire broke out on Friday in a forest area near the clinic in Lindow (Mark), which spread over an area of three hectares.
The surrounding fire brigades could have extinguished the fire quickly with 120 emergency services. There was also a fire in a small area on Friday in a forest on the local road between Wusterhausen/Dosse and Bantikow. The fire brigade was able to quickly extinguish the flames with 45 emergency services.
Also on Friday afternoon, a one-hectare wasteland between the Neuruppin districts of Nietwerder and Radensleben caught fire. According to current knowledge, the cause was flying sparks through a stone in the mower of a working machine, the police reported.
The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fire with a good 30 forces. At the same time, a small part of a meadow caught fire in Kyritz, probably caused by a discarded cigarette butt, according to the police. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the flames quickly and prevent a large fire.
According to the information, on Saturday evening there was a fire in a piece of forest on the road between Gühlen-Glienicke and Pfalzheim over an area of around a thousand square meters. The fire was quickly extinguished.
In all cases, criminal charges were filed on suspicion of negligent arson, the police reported. Concrete indications of persons who could have caused the fires are not yet available.
