Forest fire in the Harz mountains: Helicopters requested for reinforcement

Created: 06/17/2022Updated: 06/17/2022 11:33 am

A blue light shines on the roof of a fire service vehicle.

© Robert Michael/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB/Symbolbild

The fire brigade and forest experts are concerned about the ongoing drought.

Now a larger forest fire has broken out in the Harz again.

What does that mean for summer?

Blankenburg – fire brigades are fighting a new forest fire in the Harz Mountains.

An area of ​​​​about five hectares in the Trecktal in the Upper Harz on the Brocken is affected, said a spokesman for the Harz integrated control center on Friday.

That corresponds to a size of about seven football fields.

It was initially unclear why the fire broke out after midnight.

It's not the first fire this year.

According to a spokesman for the Harz district, eleven emergency vehicles from the fire brigade are on site.

A police helicopter circled over the fire and extinguished it from the air, as pictures from the Blankenburg fire brigade showed.

Flames could also be seen between trees.

The emergency services initially had to contend with difficulties: "Due to the poor mobile accessibility, the fire could only be contained and stopped along a narrow path," wrote the fire brigade on Facebook.

A firebreak was cut to stop the fire.

The road between Elbingerode and Heimburg was closed because of the fire.

Traffic has been diverted.

The second highest forest fire warning level has been in effect in the Harz district since Friday.

There had already been several fires in the Harz Mountains in the spring.

At the end of April there was a major fire brigade operation on the Brocken in the Harz National Park.

In recent years, the forests there have repeatedly been affected by bark beetle infestation, drought and storms.

The authorities in Saxony-Anhalt recently spoke of significantly more operations than in previous years due to the drought.

"In the course of climate change, the risk of forest fires will increase," recently wrote a spokesman for the forest ministry in Magdeburg.

It is not yet possible to say whether a forest fire summer like 2018 is imminent, the spokesman said.

The weather plays a decisive role in this.

In recent years, a network for automated early detection has been set up in several federal states.

"We have become more sensitive," said the state fire brigade association in Saxony-Anhalt recently about the nationwide expansion of the automated forest fire monitoring system "Fire Watch".

Saxony-Anhalt maintains an automatic forest fire early warning system.

According to the ministry, this has been modernized for around 1.6 million euros over the past two years.

In this context, the electronics at the 15 existing sensor locations have been replaced and fundamentally renewed.

For example, the sensors detect smoke development in a radius of up to 15 kilometers.

According to the State Ministry for the Environment, the forest fire season will last until September 30th.

With an absolute forest area of ​​532,480 hectares and a forest area share of 26 percent, Saxony-Anhalt is one of the fewer forested federal states in Germany.

dpa