The area affected by the forest fire in Treuenbrietzen near Berlin expanded on Sunday night. “A helicopter surveyed the area. About 100 to 110 hectares are now affected. The fire has spread to the east/southeast,” a fire department spokesman said on Sunday morning. However, the intensity of the flames had decreased. On Friday, a forest fire broke out on about 60 hectares, on Saturday it was still a good 40 hectares

The federal highway 102 therefore marks a boundary line that is defended by the fire brigade. The fire could not spread beyond the closed road. The emergency services are worried about the weather forecast for Sunday afternoon. “Gusts and wind could occur,” said the spokesman. Telekom said it wants to use a mobile transmission mast to improve communication between the emergency services.

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The extinguishing work is extremely difficult, reports the RBB. The affected forest is contaminated with ammunition and cannot be safely entered by emergency services. Already on Friday detonation noises could be heard from the flames.

The district administrator of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district had declared the disaster, said a spokesman for the regional control center of the fire brigade in Brandenburg an der Havel. According to the RBB, evacuations are not necessary for the time being.

The district had announced on Saturday that due to the increasing smoke development, there was a possibility that the residents of Tiefenbrunnen would have to be temporarily evacuated for reasons of caution.

The current wind conditions would have led to an expansion of the area of ​​​​application, it said. The Bundeswehr has also been supporting firefighting with fire-fighting flights since Saturday evening.

The district had submitted a corresponding request for administrative assistance, the Air Force said on the short message service Twitter. Soldiers from the district liaison command Potsdam-Mittelmark are also involved.

In the fight against the fire that broke out on Friday evening, it initially looked like a success on Saturday. The fire could be contained from two 60 hectares to 42 hectares, as Raimund Engel, forest fire protection officer for the state of Brandenburg, explained on Saturday morning.

A fire protection unit from Havelland with 200 workers arrived on site in the morning to relieve the firefighters, said Engel. From midday, a fire-fighting helicopter was to be deployed to support firefighting from the air.

Because the helicopters were also supposed to take water from the quarry pond, the municipality warned potential bathers not to be in the water at the same time. The forest protection officer Engel had also warned in the morning that gusts of wind could reignite the fire.

Brandenburg fire brigades went out on Saturday to further fires due to drought. Around 160 cubic meters of compost caught fire in Jühnsdorf (Teltow-Fläming), according to the control center of the Brandenburg/Havel fire brigade. The fire has since been extinguished, the spokesman said. However, follow-up checks would take some time.

In Lüdendorf near Treuenbrietzen, three hectares of forest caught fire. The forest also burned in Radeland, a district of the town of Baruth/Mark. The fire was stopped shortly before the settlement border, it said.

Firefighters were also called to a fire in the Altes Lager area, a district of the municipality of Niedergörsdorf. This fire is also under control. The extinguishing work continued, however, said the spokesman.

The extinguishing work in Frohnsdorf is made more difficult because the forest area is also an area suspected of being explosive ordnance. On Saturday, the highest forest fire danger level 5 applied across the country. The Potsdam-Mittelmark district took over the management of the operation.

Numerous emergency services from the region were also on site during the night, the Potsdam fire brigade also moved out, and the Brandenburg police’s water cannons were used. “Thank you to all the aid organizations that are going beyond their limits in these high temperatures,” wrote the district’s civil protection department on Facebook. And: “We are currently in the same place for the forest fire as in 2018. Thanks to the residents who are supporting us here diligently.”

On Friday, 380 forces had already been deployed. A massive cloud of smoke can be seen as far south as Brandenburg, said Raimund Engel, forest fire protection officer for the state of Brandenburg.

Civil protection asked the population on Friday to keep windows and doors closed in the area around Treuenbrietzen, Linthe and Niemegk. The district spokeswoman said the situation was dynamic. “The wind is changing, it’s very dry again,” said Metzler. So far, however, no towns are in danger, she emphasized.

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In 2018, flames raged for several days in the forest southwest of Berlin in Treuenbrietzen. At that time, around 400 hectares of forest had been destroyed.