A burnt forest area can be seen in the forest fire in the nature reserve on a former military training area near Jüterbog. © Paul Zinken/dpa
It is the eighth day in a row - and there is no end in sight to the forest fire near Jüterbog. After an initially more relaxed situation, the fire flares up. Help comes from the air again.
Jüterbog - Strong winds have rekindled the forest fire that broke out a week ago near Jüterbog on Wednesday, according to the operational management. With a helicopter of the Federal Police and a firefighting aircraft, firefighting was resumed from the air in the afternoon. The operations management increased the number of firefighters. "This is a battle against windmills," said head of operations Rico Valentin. "There's just no end in sight."
After an initially more relaxed situation, stronger winds arose on Wednesday morning than in the past few days. "All of a sudden, we had a bright fire," Valentin said. There had been a strong and rapid spread of the fire. Most recently, the affected area was given as a total of 326 hectares. Initially, there was no more recent information.
The fire in the ammunition-contaminated area broke out on Wednesday evening last week. Due to the risk of explosion on the former military training area, the fire brigade cannot get directly to the sources of the fire. Localities were not in danger.
For example, the fire brigade keeps paths wet with irrigation systems so that the fire does not spread to another area. A measuring drone was also to be used to gain insights into the extent of the fire. There were 90 emergency personnel on site and 25 vehicles, said the head of the public order office, Christiane Lindner-Klopsch.
Last week, firefighting planes and a helicopter were already in use, but not since the weekend. On Tuesday, the situation in the forest fire area was much more relaxed. "It's not a catastrophe yet, but there's a lot going on," Lindner-Klopsch said on Wednesday.
District fire chief Kai-Uwe Lohse from the district of Harz in Saxony-Anhalt confirmed that the firefighting aircraft "Florian Harz 25" had taken off from Ballenstedt airfield filled with water. In the meantime, the machine has repeatedly dropped water over the forest fire area on the former military training area. A week ago, the aircraft, which has only recently been stationed in the Harz Mountains, had its baptism of fire - its first mission - at Jüterbog. Firefighting with firefighting aircraft is still uncharted territory in Germany.
The federal government does not currently consider its own fire-fighting aircraft squadron to be necessary, said Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) on Tuesday in the area of operation near Jüterbog. The focus is on helicopter operations, which have proven themselves time and again. "But that doesn't mean that it has to stay that way for the next 50 years," said the CDU politician. "We as a country would simply be overwhelmed to set up and maintain our own firefighting aircraft squadron." dpa
