The special fire brigade teams that started on Saturday evening at the wildfire in Budel have to leave again. Thunderstorms make it too dangerous to continue working. In the meantime, the wind is blowing harder due to showers, which is fueling the fire again.
The fire brigade therefore urgently sent additional fire engines to the forest. Firefighters can still fight the fire from those vehicles.
But the plan was actually for so-called ‘hand crews’ to work. These are specialist fire brigade teams that use hand tools to fight fires in places where fire engines cannot reach.
Walking is too dangerous
They normally walk around on foot, but that is now too dangerous due to heavy showers. “Our protocol is that the hand crews are now not allowed to work in the forest,” says a spokesperson for the Brabant-Southeast Safety Region.
He doesn’t know what time the hand crews will be allowed to continue again. “At least when the storm has passed.”
