The fight against the flames continues unabated in the forest fire area in Brandenburg’s Elbe-Elster district. The embers in particular were under observation on Thursday. The fire flared up again on Wednesday, and the emergency services also fought against it on Thursday, as the district announced. However, the situation is still under control. There are currently no open fires in the operational area of the city of Falkenberg, it said in the morning.
However, the situation in the fire area remains dynamic. The fire had flared up on Wednesday evening. According to the information, numerous embers with temperatures between 40 and 180 degrees are currently under observation.
They would have to be kept in check, the administrative staff said. Around 320 workers from several parts of Brandenburg are busy with the extinguishing work. To further contain the fire, a Bundeswehr armored personnel carrier arrived during the night, which is to create aisles in the area during the day.
Support comes again from the air from the Bundeswehr and state police. After it was said on Wednesday that the fire-fighting helicopters of the Bundeswehr would no longer be needed for the time being, transport helicopters with water loads from Kiebitzsee provided help again on Thursday. Swimming in the lake was again prohibited after an interim release.
At the same time, a police helicopter explored the area using a thermal camera to identify the main areas of operation and is to survey the area again. Most recently, the fire blazed over an area of 500 hectares. A difficulty in the extinguishing work is that areas are contaminated with ammunition. A bomb discovery from Saxony reported on Wednesday ultimately turned out to be a mistake.
In the Walbrandzentrale Süd in Wünsdorf, the employees are highly sensitized. “We continue to perceive smoke from the area of operation,” said the state’s deputy forest fire protection officer, Philipp Haase, of the dpa on Thursday.
Now the focus must be placed on the surrounding areas in the forest fire area in order to be able to react quickly to new fires. “Nothing would be more fatal than if we said now: Because of the major damage situation, there are enough fire brigades”. The head office is in constant contact with the Lausitz control center in order to analyze the fire situation precisely and to be able to distinguish between possible new fires and plan operations.
Forest scientist Alexander Held, meanwhile, considers new approaches to fighting forest fires in Germany to be necessary. “What we are seeing now in terms of fire behavior is typically seen in Spain and Portugal. We’re just lagging behind in terms of training, strategy, tactics, but also equipment,” said Held on the phoenix television station.
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The topic is known and new training concepts and documents are being worked on together with fire service schools. However, one is being “overtaken on the right” by the current development. Held is an expert in forest risk management at the European Forest Institute (EFI).
