Hundreds of firefighters were still on duty on Friday against the forest fire that broke out in Saxon Switzerland more than a week ago. As on the previous day, around 600 firefighters are expected to be deployed again, said a spokeswoman for the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district in the morning. The ground forces were increased to this number on Thursday.
The situation remains tense and still requires the full scope of all emergency services, the district said. The ground forces and the fire-fighting helicopters were still busy putting down the embers and isolated fires that had been encouraged by the heat.
According to the district, around two kilometers of hose lines were laid on Thursday in order to be able to fight the fire in the higher regions of the national park.
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The forest fire area was limited to the areas already affected and still affected an area of around 150 hectares. Residential areas were therefore still not threatened, so the district ruled out evacuations.
