Acute fire hazard!
Red alert in Upper Bavaria's forests - everyone should know these tips
Created: 07/22/2022, 22:28
By: Helmut Hobmaier
There is an acute risk of forest and wildfires in the forests in the Freising district.
The fire department is also on red alert.
District
– It makes a “plop” – and Alfred Fuchs looks at his shirt in amazement: there is a glistening drop of resin that has just fallen from a tree.
A warning sign.
"At around 35 degrees, the resin in the cones liquefies and drips down," reports the manager of the Freising forestry company, who is currently on an inspection tour.
And the resin is highly combustible.
It exacerbates the already fire-hazardous situation in the forest: "The first few centimeters of forest floor are really bone dry," says Fuchs and shows nettle bushes that are weakly bending downwards.
Even balsam makes you tired.
And the branches, the leaves and the needles on the dust-dry forest floor: it all burns like tinder, as Fuchs knows.
Together with resin an explosive mixture.
A discarded match, a cigarette butt - and everything is ablaze.
This is how you can prevent fires in forests and fields
-
Smoking, open fire or barbecuing is
prohibited
from March 1st to October 31st in the forests throughout Germany
and is also to be avoided in all other areas of vegetation, especially when it is dry there.
Use paved areas with sufficiently large, non-combustible floor areas for this.
- Any suspicion of a fire should be reported immediately to the
emergency number 112
.
The earlier a fire is discovered, the faster it can be fought with a good chance of success.
- State the
location of the fire
as precisely as possible.
You can also use your mobile phone or the location function for this.
- Farmers and foresters should carry
extinguishing options
on their vehicles (fire extinguishers) and check the machines and their engines before and after work to change dirty filters or defective hydraulic hoses.
Observe equipment and machines while working and in the event of problems (increasing temperatures, warnings, etc.) stop working, leave the dry area and check the machine on a path or an unvegetated area.
- Larger or remote work areas should be accompanied, for example, with a tractor with a cultivator when working in the fields and with a
water barrel
in the forest or bush area.
In the event of a field fire, the unaffected areas can be secured with a protective strip and the fire can be fought more quickly by the fire brigade.
- For the early detection of forest and wildfires, the government of Upper Bavaria has also ordered
aerial observation flights
.
Source: Freising District Office with information from the German Fire Brigade Association and the Association for the Promotion of German Fire Protection
Forest fire in Upper Bavaria: Highest level in the danger index
There is a red alert for foresters and fire brigades: Due to the persistent drought and the great heat in the district, there is an acute risk of forest and wildfires.
The forest fire risk index and the grassland fire index of the German Weather Service show the second highest to highest level for large parts of Bavaria and the district of Freising, as reported by the district office.
Press spokesman Robert Stangl's "urgent appeal to all forest visitors" is "to exercise the greatest possible caution" and never to smoke or barbecue in the forest.
Fire: Forest edges are absolute danger zones
Alfred Fuchs wholeheartedly agrees: "The edges of the forest are an absolute source of danger," the head of the forestry operation knows.
The grass there has long since dried up and everything is bone dry: "Anyone who parks there to smoke a cigarette quickly is making a huge mistake and can cause a serious fire," warns Fuchs.
The flames would then quickly spread to the forest or adjacent, harvested grain fields.
Anyone who thinks that nobody is stupid enough to smoke in or near the forest is wrong: "Unfortunately, many people still do not comply with the absolute smoking ban in the forest, which applies until the end of October," says Fuchs angrily (see box ).
Of course, he lacks the staff for systematic patrols in the forest.
The police discovered a fire in the forest from the helicopter
Once it has happened and the flames are licking up, every second counts: the quicker the fire brigade is alerted, the quicker the fire can be contained, Fuchs knows from experience.
A few years ago, the crew of a police helicopter, which was actually on duty because of a traffic jam on the A 9, discovered a forest fire that was beginning to go out, which the fire brigade was able to put out in a short time.
Cause of fire: A driver had driven into the forest to warm up food on the gas cooker.
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Government ordered observation flights over Bavaria's forests
"Since we have a lot of air traffic, we hope that sources of fire can also be identified quickly from the air," says Alfred Fuchs.
The government has ordered aerial observation flights for the early detection of forest and wildfires.
The fire brigades in the district are always on site very quickly, praises Fuchs.
"You can absolutely rely on them."
(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)
Training is already going on.
The "Forest Fire Working Group" of the Freising District Fire Inspectorate has just rehearsed near Zolling under the direction of District Fire Chief Johannes Neumair with the specially purchased "Forest Fire" mobile container in the Zollinger Forest.
That was another exercise.
Immediately after the conversation with the Tagblatt, forest manager Fuchs received an alarm message: Fire in the Inhauser Moos near Haimhausen.
The fire was quickly recognized - and therefore quickly extinguished.
You can find more current news from the district of Freising at Merkur.de/Freising.
