The forest fire in the Lieberoser Heide in Brandenburg spread on Tuesday night. This is reported, among other things, by the RBB. Accordingly, the use of the fire brigade continued into the night. 100 firefighters were deployed, who were replaced by fresh workers on Tuesday morning. Around 13 hectares are currently affected by the fire. The county fire chief said the fire is not yet under control.
The fire broke out on Monday on a site polluted with ammunition in the Lieberoser Heide in southern Brandenburg. Explosive ordnance in the ground and the wind made extinguishing operations difficult. Emergency services cannot enter the heavily ammunition-loaded area, as the Dahme-Spreewald district announced on Monday afternoon.
A helicopter was used to extinguish the fire from the air. According to the district, an area of ​​six hectares is affected by the fire. The Brandenburg forest fire protection officer Raimund Engel initially spoke of around ten hectares.
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“Due to the unfavorable wind conditions, the fire is spreading. We are working with all our strength to fight the fire,” said operations manager Christian Liebe, according to a statement from the district.
The fire was classified as a “major damage situation” in the afternoon. Localities and people are not in danger, the district said. According to the district, around 100 emergency services from several fire brigades have responded. In the Dahme-Spreewald district, the forest fire warning level is 4 and thus the second highest level.
In view of the forest fires in Brandenburg, Forestry and Climate Protection Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) has called for the forest to be converted more quickly with significantly more deciduous trees. There are still 80 percent pine forests. “Bringing in deciduous trees is the order of the day,” said Vogel on Tuesday on RBB Inforadio.
A total of 600,000 hectares of coniferous forest would have to be converted, but it is currently less than 5,000 hectares per year. That’s not enough. Because of climate change, the conversion would have to be completed within a generation, Vogel said. “Otherwise we might soon no longer have any forests in Brandenburg.” In total, Brandenburg has more than one million hectares of forest areas.
Vogel spoke of the fourth drought year in five years. So far, 755 hectares of forest have already burned down, but the forest fire season is only just beginning. 80 percent of fires are caused by people, such as cigarettes or arson. In the meantime, however, the reporting system has been improved, most fires are discovered quickly and therefore remain very small.
At the end of June 2019, a fire raged on 100 hectares of the former military training area in the Lieberoser Heide. It took a week for the fire to be extinguished. The danger there remains high with the great drought and the current temperatures.
Brandenburg has the largest proportion of munitions contaminated areas in Germany. There are conversion areas – areas that are burdened by the withdrawal of Russian troops – as well as areas that were once used for military purposes. Ordnance from the Second World War is still suspected on 350,000 hectares.
There was also another fire on Sunday at the Saxon-Brandenburg state border. The police said on Monday that a fire had spread over about 1.5 hectares near Arzberg in the district of North Saxony. Volunteer fire brigades from Saxony and Brandenburg could have prevented further spread.
According to the fire department, self-ignition is unlikely. The police are now investigating arson. The extent of the damage was still unclear.
