Several columns of smoke rise above a forest near Jüterbog. © Michael Bahlo/dpa
Flames blaze in the forest area near Jüterbog, clouds of smoke rise. The firefighting operation of the fire brigade is difficult because of the ammunition load. There is no quick end in sight.
Jüterbog - The situation worsened on Saturday in the case of the forest fire that has been blazing for days on a former military training area near Jüterbog. A quick end to the firefighting operation is not foreseeable. The area affected by the flames has become significantly larger. There are now over 150 hectares, said a spokeswoman for the city of Jüterbog on Saturday evening. In the morning it was said that it was burning on a total of 45 hectares. The fire brigade is trying from the ground to stop the fire that started on Wednesday - not an easy task because of the ammunition load in the area.
Head of operations Rico Valentin said: "There was stronger wind today than in previous days and higher temperatures." As a result, the fire spread faster on Saturday. "If the weather stays like this, we expect it to spread further." However, the nearest villages are still far away.
At the same time, the fire brigade had to fight a fire in Kloster Zinna, a district of the small town of Jüterbog, on Saturday. There, four hectares were affected, Valentin said. "The fire is out now, but the thick ground is still smoking. There has to be a lot of water on the surface."
On the former military training area in Brandenburg, the emergency services still cannot reach the fire sites in the forest because the risk of explosion is too great. "You're frustrated," Valentin said. Firefighting planes that took off on Thursday and Friday were no longer in use. "With firefighting aircraft, we no longer had the desired effect, it was not massive enough," said the head of operations.
The fire brigade is trying to stop the fire on the so-called forest fire protection strips, said as a spokeswoman for the city, the head of the public order office, Christiane Lindner-Klopsch. These are aisles about 30 meters wide in the forest, also with roads. Certain strips are freed from highly flammable material such as brushwood and branches, among other things, and are intended to help stop the fires.
Drones are also still in use, which should provide information about the extent of the fire, said Lindner-Klopsch. A quad bike helps with reconnaissance in the field.
According to Valentin, the use of firefighting and recovery vehicles from a private provider is also being examined. However, it is still unclear whether this is possible and sensible, he said. "There is ammunition everywhere in the area, and we don't know where." In addition, there is a lot of dead wood on the ground. "It's like a big Mikado game." It is not easy to draw a swath in the forest with tanks.
The Brandenburg forest fire protection officer Raimund Engel said it was not foreseeable that the fire could be extinguished quickly. On Sunday, he expects higher temperatures, rain is not in sight. The risk of forest fires for Brandenburg remains high.
The affected forest fire area is part of a large area owned by the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation. It secures former military training areas for nature conservation. The managing director of the Natural Landscapes Foundation, Andreas Meißner, said that the "heart" of the wilderness area was affected. From a nature conservation point of view, it is very sad that the areas would burn again.
In 2018 and 2019, there had already been fires in the area. The forest fire protection system, for example with fire-retardant protective strips, has been well developed there, said Meißner. There are wells every two kilometers, so that the fire brigade has short distances to absorb water. Dpa