In Brandenburg, the number of forest fires has risen to 126 since the beginning of this year’s forest fire season by Friday. This was announced by the deputy forest fire protection officer Philipp Haase in the morning. Accordingly, it burned on Friday night near Motzen (Dahme-Spreewald) over an area of ​​7500 square meters. Two smaller fires blazed on Thursday afternoon between Baruth (Teltow-Fläming) and Teupitz (Dahme-Spreewald district) over a total area of ​​around 1500 square meters.
According to Haase, young pines burned at Motzen. The fire brigades were alerted at around 4.30 a.m. At 8:00 a.m., post-extinguishing work would still have taken place. The deputy forest fire protection officer suspects arsonists behind the fire. “Experience shows that fire incidents at night can be traced back to arson,” said Haase. Since nocturnal fires are very rare, forests are not monitored by the fire brigade at night.
According to data from the Ministry of the Environment, forest fire danger level three out of a possible five applied in most districts on Friday. In the districts of Märkisch-Oderland and Oder-Spree it was four and in Prignitz it was two. The levels are calculated based on precipitation, humidity, wind speed and temperature, among other things. According to forest fire protection officer Raimund Engel, the forest fire season lasts 214 days. The highest danger level five applies on average for 10 to 20 days. (dpa)
