As of: March 25, 2024, 4:44 p.m
By: Johannes Welte
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A forest fire on the border between East and South Tyrol caused apocalyptic scenes.
© Market town of Innichen / Comune di San Candido/Facebook
A major fire in the Pustertal, which belongs to South Tyrol and East Tyrol, destroyed 6.5 hectares of forest at the weekend.
180 firefighters fought the flames.
Sillian – The Pustertal is a unique holiday address for holidaymakers: from here you can explore the Dolomites, the Three Peaks and Lake Braies are close.
Its special feature is that since the end of the First World War and the collapse of the Austrian Danube Monarchy it has extended over the countries of Austria and Italy - the west belongs to East Tyrol as far as Innichen (San Candido), and from the neighboring town of SiIlian further east.
The flames were fought with an international fire brigade operation
When there was a major fire at the weekend, the boundaries were quickly forgotten: the fire broke out on Friday (March 22nd) around 4 p.m. during forestry work.
The woodworkers on site were no longer able to put out the fire.
A huge fire brigade operation began.
In addition to around 180 firefighters, four helicopters were also used to fight the fire.
The extinguishing work continued until Saturday evening (March 23).
According to current information, no people were injured.
The amount of damage has not yet been determined.
Investigations are currently underway to determine the cause of the fire.
“The challenge is that there are also residential areas and individual farmsteads on the Sillianerberg,” reported Franz Brunner, fire department inspector for the Lienz district, in an interview with
ORF
.
“If the fire had developed in the wrong direction, it could have ended badly,” the district fire inspector continued.
Drought and bark beetles exacerbated the situation
Because the operation would have been too dangerous for the firefighters at night, the extinguishing work was interrupted at nightfall.
The fire flared up again during the night, Brunner reported.
“The difficulty in our district is that we have so many bare areas due to the forest situation and the bark beetle.”
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Firefighting work resumed at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning.
The firefighting teams on the ground received support from the air.
Four helicopters (“Libelle” Tyrol and Carinthia, C7 and Heli Austria) were requested and three carried out fire-fighting flights.
Drones helped identify the sources of the fire.
Two fire brigades from South Tyrol also supported the East Tyrolean comrades in the extinguishing work.
On Saturday at 5:17 p.m. the “fire out” was finally given.
The fire brigade also responded on Sunday - an alarm until the middle of the week
According to the Kleine Zeitung,
a reconnaissance flight on Sunday (March 24th)
continued to show light smoke in places.
The Sillian fire department went out again to extinguish the fire.
The fire site will continue to be monitored in the coming days.
District fire brigade commander Harald Draxl told the newspaper: “The final ‘fire out’ should take place on Wednesday.”
Recently there was a fire at the Tyrolean Plansee - near the Bavarian border.
In the very south of Italy, flames blazed in forest fires in Sicily.
Several yachts burned down in the port of Genoa.