A refreshing wind has rekindled the forest fire near Jüterbog south of Berlin: "There is again a dicey situation," said the head of the city's public order office, Christiane Lindner-Klopsch, on Friday afternoon. In the more than 600-hectare fire area, numerous extinguished areas were again in flames and at one point the fire even jumped to a previously intact forest area.
The fire brigade is trying to contain this fire again, said the head of the public order office. Once again, a firefighting helicopter of the Bundeswehr was involved. The Federal Police had already dropped on Thursday with a helicopter in 80 approaches around 144,000 liters of extinguishing water over the fires, as the presidium announced. In the whole of June, there have been 157 approaches with around 282,000 liters of extinguishing water over the forest fire area.
On Friday morning, Lindner-Klopsch was still "cautiously optimistic" that the fire could be contained permanently. But from noon on, a refreshing wind put an end to these hopes. In the past few days, strong winds had repeatedly caused the fires to flare up. The affected area doubled on Wednesday to around 650 hectares. This corresponds to more than twice the area of Potsdam's Sanssouci Park and more than three times the area of Berlin's Tiergarten.
Villages are not in danger
There has been a fire in the ammunition-contaminated area since May 31. Due to the risk of explosion on the former military training area, the fire brigade cannot get directly to the sources of the fire. Villages are not in danger.
The state's forest fire protection officer, Raimund Engel, assumes that the risk of forest fires in Brandenburg will remain high and highest in the foreseeable future. "Because dry weather with summer temperatures is predicted until well into the coming week," Engel explained.
So far this year, there have been around 130 forest fires in Brandenburg. This is slightly less than last year, when 170 forest fires had already been counted by that time. However, this is only due to the rather cool and wet weather in the months of February and March. "In the time ahead, the situation remains very critical."
The Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald (German Forest Protection Association) therefore called on citizens to be particularly careful. The litter of branches, twigs and semi-decomposed leaves as well as the centimeter-thick coniferous litter in the forests was completely dried out, the association said. "A discarded cigarette, a small campfire, or glowing charcoal can now have devastating effects." Therefore, open fires, barbecuing and smoking in the forest are strictly prohibited.