Before the fire broke out, it was a busy week at the Artillery Shooting Camp (ASK) ‘t Harde, a vast military site on the northern Veluwe.
On Monday and Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., there were exercises with “rifle and machine gun fire and cannon,” according to the Ministry of Defense roster. On Wednesday there was not only shooting with small caliber and artillery, but also practice in detonating explosives. It is still unclear what the cause of the wildfire, which started on Wednesday morning and has still not been brought under control on Thursday afternoon. The Royal Military Police is still investigating.
The fire on ‘t Harde is not an isolated incident. On Wednesday evening, a fire also broke out at a Defense military training area in Drenthe, on the heath near Baggelhuizerplas in Assen. On Thursday afternoon, a fire broke out – for the seventh time this week – at the military training area on the Oirschotse Heide, in North Brabant. That same afternoon, a sea of flames also broke out around a military training area in Weert (Limburg), as a result of which an asylum center had to be evacuated.
The fire brigade at work at the Oirschotse Heide in North Brabant, next to Major General De Ruyter of Steveninck barracks.
Photos Iris van den Broek/ANP
Unexploded ordnance
But the fire on the Veluwe is by far the largest. And it is extra difficult to extinguish: in certain places the fire brigade can only extinguish the fire from a distance due to unexploded ammunition on the site.
ASK ‘t Harde, in use since 1877, is the only training area in the Netherlands where Defense can fire with mortars and the Armored Howitzer 2000. Firing takes place from the Doornspijkse heath in the southwest towards the Oldenbroekse heide in the northeast. The mortar and artillery shells fly in a high trajectory over the N309 that connects ‘t Harde with Epe – according to Defense it is “excluded” that a shell accidentally lands on the provincial road, according to a report permit application from 2024.
However, fire from exploding grenades is a real risk, especially in dry weather. The training area therefore has its own company fire brigade; If scaling up is required, the regional fire brigades will be called in for help.
If the fire at ‘t Harde was indeed caused by a military exercise, the big question is why it continued, especially given the drought. Commander of the Armed Forces (CDS) Onno Eichelsheim sees no reason to scale down the exercise program for the time being. “I find it very annoying for bystanders, campsites and nature itself,” the CDS said during a press moment in Hilversum, “but we have to keep practicing to be ready for crises.” Defense wants to to look at whether the protocols surrounding practicing during drought should be tightened. For the time being, the department’s Information Division reports, the use of “open fire, ammunition and pyrotechnic means [zoals rookpotten] shut down.”
Firefighters at the entrance to the military training area at ‘t Harde in Gelderland, one day after the exceptionally large wildfire.
Photo SEM VAN DER WAL / ANP
Nature ‘super flammable’
Brigadier General Han Bouwmeester, professor of military-operational sciences at the Dutch Defense Academy, was stationed twice in the barracks next to the shooting range during his long career in the artillery. “I have often experienced shooting being stopped due to fire risk. I once had a three-day shooting exercise that ultimately only lasted half a day because the risk was too great.”
Guido van der Werf, professor of wildfires and the carbon cycle at Wageningen University, previously wondered NRC wondered whether it would not be better to temporarily halt exercises involving the use of explosives: “Nature is simply super flammable at the moment.”
Those were also the “first questions” that Bouwmeester had. “In any case, I know that the units have a very busy schedule. For example, they have many international obligations these days; few shifts are possible.”
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Defense’s first main task – defending its own territory – has become a priority again. The government therefore wants to expand the armed forces (currently more than 80,000 men and women, including civilian employees and reservists) to 122,000. All these new people have to be trained, and that is not only possible in Germany and Poland. The National Space Program for Defense provides for the expansion of twelve training areas, such as at Oirschot, Weert and Ermelo.
Aerial photo of the damage after the large wildfire on the military training area near ‘t Harde in Gelderland.
Photo BRAM VAN DE BIEZEN / ANP
The risk of fire increases due to more intensive use. Last year a large fire broke out on the heath near Ede, probably caused by a ‘smoke pot’ (for laying a smoke screen). The fire was so big that local residents had to be evacuated. That fire also started in April, after it had hardly rained for weeks.
As long as the fire in ‘t Harde is still raging, the Royal Military Police cannot yet conduct a trace investigation, says a spokesperson. Witness statements have already started to be recorded. Han Bouwmeester points out that the fire did not start in the “target area”, where the projectiles end up and therefore the fire risk is greatest. If you look at aerial photographs, the fire indeed appears to have started on the southwestern side of the site. That is the place from which the grenades are fired.
Greater demand on fire brigade capacity
Global warming increases the risk of fire. In a letter to the House of Representatives, former State Secretary for Justice and Security Ingrid Coenradie (then PVV, now JA21) spoke of an “increase in wildfires with higher intensities and faster expansions”, which will place an increasing burden on the available fire brigade capacity.
The extent of the damage to nature and the environment (apart from the enormous smoke development and CO2 emissions) remains to be seen. Almost 60 percent of the defense areas falls under Natura 2000the European network of protected natural areas.
After the fire on the Ederheide last year, Member of Parliament Christine Teunissen (Party for the Animals) asked for a response from then State Secretary Gijs Tuinman (BBB). According to Tuinman, there was also good news: the spreading flames had significantly reduced the number of strawberries, a tough type of grass that displaces heath plants. “Grazing by a flock of sheep immediately started to help the heath recover.”
Also read
The smoke hangs in the streets of Nunspeet, people close their eyes. ‘It smells like a campfire’
