The large forest fire in National Park De Loonse and Drunense Duinen is under control on Sunday morning, but a signal ‘Brand Meester’ cannot yet be given. The soil is still incredibly hot in the area. The fire brigade therefore uses a special machine to toss the ground. “This is how we hope that the fire cannot expand,” said the fire brigade.
The extinguishing will ‘will take a large part of the afternoon all morning anyway’, the safety region reports. The fire raged in an area of about 600 meters by 700 meters and is still not extinguished.
The advice also remains on Sunday to stay away from the area and to close windows and doors with smoke or odor nuisance.
‘Ground still very hot’
According to the chief officer on the service of the fire brigade, Erik van der Linden, there are still around 50 to 60 firefighters in the area to extinguish. The problem is that the substrate is still very hot.
“We can keep a layer of five centimeters, but below that everything is very hot and can even burn,” Van der Linden explains.
This afternoon the wind will turn to a piece of nearby forest where no fire has yet broken out. “We are going to try to ensure that the substrate has cooled down sufficiently at that time. Otherwise we run the risk that the fire will expand towards the forest,” says the chief officer.
Special machine
A special agricultural machine, a forest cutter, therefore goes down the ground. “For example, the hot pieces of land are exposed and can be cooled with fire extinguishing water,” says Van der Linden. “We go for about half a meter of soil.”
Due to the wind and the rainfall last night, the fierceness of the fire was taken. “But the land is still incredibly hot,” a spokesperson for the safety region adds, “so we really have to extinguish with extinguishing. The fire is not over yet.”
140 care providers
The fire broke out on Saturday afternoon around a quarter past three. Initially it was reported that an area of five hundred by five hundred meters was on fire. The sea of flames caused enormous damage in the area.
Around 140 care providers were fighting the fire on Saturday evening. 96 firefighters attacked the sea of flames in the field. Emergency services such as the police were able to go home at some point, but the firefighters of different units stayed in the area for the rest of the night.
