Forest fire in the Harz Mountains: Italy sends fire

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A Candair CL-415 in Italy: 6000 liters of water

Photo: Riccardo Fabi / NurPhoto / IMAGO

Italy supports Germany in fighting the forest fire on the Brocken with two fire-fighting aircraft.

The Canadair CL 415 machines took off in Rome on Sunday afternoon and made their way to Braunschweig-Wolfsburg Airport, as announced by the Italian civil defense.

The fire brigade aircraft, which can hold and drop more than 6,000 liters of water, have been requested as part of the European aid project "RescEU-IT" via the central coordination office in Brussels.

Italy regularly provides its EU partners with planes and pilots to fight forest fires.

The fire that broke out on Saturday was still not under control on Sunday.

It raged over an area of ​​around 62 hectares.

Above all, dead spruce stands burned.

Five fire-fighting helicopters and more than 300 emergency services fought the flames, and a good 50 police officers secured the area.

emergency declared

District Administrator Thomas Balcerowski (CDU) declared the disaster on Sunday morning.

Wernigerode's city spokeswoman Ariane Hofmann announced that the district was assuming that extinguishing work would take several days.

Because of the fire, numerous hikers and visitors were brought to safety on the Brocken on Saturday.

The town of Schierke, which belongs to Wernigerode, is not at risk, it said.

A no-fly zone for civil air traffic has been set up within a radius of 40 kilometers on the Brocken.

The Goetheweg to the Brocken is one of the most frequented hiking trails in the Harz National Park.

The Harz narrow-gauge railways did not run up the mountain on Sunday;

there was limited train service between Wernigerode and Drei Annen Hohne.

Only about three weeks ago there was a fire in the Harz near the Brocken on about 13 hectares.

Around 200 firefighters were on duty at the time.

slue/dpa