The situation in the forest fire areas in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is easing. The approximately 160 residents of the village of Volzrade near Lübtheen south-east of Schwerin should be able to return to their homes on Wednesday afternoon.
People had to leave their homes on Monday evening after the forest fire on the former Lübtheen military training area had come within 800 meters of the village. Again and again there were explosions of old ammunition. The flames were contained 500 meters from the site on Tuesday. District Administrator Stefan Sternberg (SPD) said the ground between the fire area and the village was well watered, so there was no longer any danger. The meanwhile threatened evacuation of another village was averted on Tuesday.
The fire in the Viezer Heide near Hagenow, about 30 kilometers away – also a former munitions-contaminated military site – has been contained. There, a Bundeswehr tank has pushed wide fire protection strips around the forest fire to prevent it from spreading. According to the information, 47 hectares are affected there. The situation has stabilized to the extent that the area can probably be handed over to the city and the other owners on Wednesday evening, Sternberg said.
The adjacent federal highway 321, which had been closed due to the fire, should be released again at noon. The forest fire near Hagenow also broke out on Monday afternoon.
Operation in the Taunus continues
In Hesse, on the third day since a forest fire broke out on the third highest Taunus summit – the Altkönig – there is no end in sight to the fire service. “It will take a while,” said district spokesman Alexander Wächtershäuser on Wednesday. The emergency services would have to turn every stone to determine whether there are still embers.
In the case of a forest fire near Mielkendorf in Schleswig-Holstein, the post-extinguishing work continued on Wednesday morning. According to the police, the emergency services are currently busy finding and extinguishing new embers. In the Southwest Palatinate, too, the fire brigade continues to fight against a forest fire between Pirmasens and Rodalben in the Southwest Palatinate. The fire was prevented from spreading overnight, but there were still a number of embers, said the mayor of the Rodalben municipality, Wolfgang Denzer (SPD).
In the course of global warming, the risk of forest fires is increasing in many regions, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has established. A warmer climate can contribute to more water falling from the sky, also more often in the form of heavy rain. However, the pauses between precipitation events are becoming longer in some cases. And especially in areas that are already dry, such as in north-eastern Germany, the danger of periods of drought is increasing. Forest fires can spread faster in extremely dry vegetation.
