As part of the European Championships: Negligent arson on Kesselberg

Created: 08/18/2022, 14:16

The police noticed the smell of smoke and found the scene of the fire (symbol image).

© Julia Boecken

Kochel – It could have turned out very differently.

An unknown almost caused a major fire on the Kochler Kesselberg.

As part of the road bike race of the European Championship 2022 last Sunday, two police officers from the Oberbayern Süd police headquarters were deployed to secure traffic on the B11 B11 Kesselberg route.

During the operation, the officials noticed a clear smell of smoke in the Helmer Hütte area and searched the immediate area for a fire.

A few meters away from their location, they found a building stump with a significant nest of embers, which could have spread very quickly to a large fire given the current drought and risk of forest fires.

The source of the fire was immediately extinguished with the fire extinguisher of the emergency vehicle, but by the time the Kochel fire brigade, who had been alerted, the embers had already spread through the dry forest floor.

The fire brigade extinguished the area with a considerable amount of water and thus prevented the danger of an open fire.

Cause: cigarette butt

The search for the cause of the fire showed that it was very likely that a previously unknown person had carelessly thrown away a cigarette butt, which then led to the embers developing.

The police are investigating negligent arson.

Relevant information to phone 08041/76106-273.

You are urgently warned not to throw away cigarette butts or light an open fire in the open air, especially during the current dry phase when there is a high risk of forest fires.

This can lead to devastating fires.