By Michael Sauerbier
The forest fire at Jüterbog cannot be stopped! Explosions shake the surrounding towns. The fire at the former military training area ignites old ammunition. Why don’t you clear them away?
“An explosion on Sunday evening could be heard from miles away,” said head of operations Robert Preuss (36) of the BZ, “old ammunition is still lying everywhere on the ground. That’s why we can’t get to many of the sources of fire.”
The affected area more than doubled on Monday from 150 to 326 hectares. Reason: the strong wind. The three active sources of fire “greatly increased” by the afternoon.
Firefighting helicopters and airplanes were withdrawn – too expensive, little use Photo: Cevin Dettlaff/dpa
The fire brigade can only fight two fire sites with water cannons because they are on the trafficable protective strip. The third fire rages unabated in the ammunition-contaminated core area.
Time and again, highly flammable phosphorus shells trigger forest fires. Valuable forest soil and trees burn – and also insects, fawns and bird chicks that cannot escape.
The fire brigade can only fight the fire on protective strips – the forest is contaminated with ammunition Photo: Michael Bahlo/dpa
Why don’t experts clear the explosive devices out of the ground? The depressing answer: Because there are too many! For 300 years, the military has set up military training areas all over Brandenburg. 1945 great battles raged around Berlin.
Consequence: Almost 300,000 hectares of forest are contaminated with munitions – every tenth square meter of Brandenburg. Only 30,000 hectares have been cleared since 2011.
The country has sold part of the military areas to nature conservationists, and the forest fire area near Jüterbog to the Foundation for Natural Landscapes. Boss Andreas Meißner (59) to the BZ: “We were only able to clear the ammunition on 2.5 percent of the area.”
A quick end to the firefighting operation is not foreseeable Photo: dpa
The reasons: “The total evacuation would cost 250 million euros,” says Meißner, “there are not enough specialists for that. And if we sift everything to a depth of two meters, we would be left with a lunar landscape.”
The only thing that remains is to build fire protection strips, create fire-fighting water wells and escape routes. Shells will continue to explode in Brandenburg’s forests.