Residents of Falkenberg thank the helpers and emergency services with a poster Photo: dpa
From BZ/dpa
AT LAST! According to official information, the situation in the forest fire area in the Elbe-Elster district of Brandenburg has eased.
On an area of 500 hectares there are still individual embers that have to be extinguished, according to the administrative staff of the district on Saturday morning.
On Friday evening, 250 emergency services were still fighting the flames. The forest fire in southern Brandenburg not far from the Saxon border broke out on Monday and quickly spread to around 800 hectares.
The flames were fanned again and again by gusty winds Photo: Jan Woitas/dpa
The fire raged in a pig fattening facility with 2,000 animals Photo: Private
Firefighters extinguish the fire from the ground. They are supported by the Bundeswehr, which also has a transport helicopter on standby until Sunday to help extinguish the fire from the air if necessary. According to the information, this also applies to two engineer tanks that support the construction of aisles and paths.
A Bell CH-53 helicopter from the Bundeswehr fetches extinguishing water from the Kiebitz dredging pond to fight forest fires Photo: Jan Woitas/dpa
Meanwhile, the non-profit aid organization @fire, which deliberately burned vegetation along federal highway 183, has finished its work. With her action, she was able to reduce deadwood, for example, in order to prevent the fire from spreading to other areas.
Brandenburg
The Kiebitzsee has now been released for bathers again, as the district said. In the past few days, firefighting helicopters from the Bundeswehr had taken water from the local recreation area to extinguish the major fire and closed the lake for it. On Saturday, the emergency services on site continued to hope for the rain for Lusatia announced by the German Weather Service.