Glowing embers can still be seen under the black ash, smoke is rising from the ground: it took several days for the forest fire in southern Brandenburg to be extinguished.
An area the size of 1,200 soccer fields has been burned, leaving pitch-black areas.
SPIEGEL Daily reporter Regina Steffens accompanied the fire brigade in their extinguishing work, which always had to expect the fire to break out again.
"We have to be even more sensitive," says the district fire chief of the Elbe-Elster district about the major fire.
But what exactly does that mean?
What has to happen so that fires like this don't keep happening, even though it's getting hotter and drier?
In this podcast episode, SPIEGEL science editor Hilmar Schmundt explains why Brandenburg in particular is a powder keg for forest fires, why firefighting planes are of little help and how we now have to convert the forest.
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