Thuringia: Red card shows high risk of forest fires almost everywhere

Erfurt (dpa/th) - From the southern Harz Mountains to the Thuringian Forest: The risk of forest fires in Thuringia remains high with extreme drought, high temperatures and a lack of precipitation.

Thuringia: Red card shows high risk of forest fires almost everywhere

Erfurt (dpa/th) - From the southern Harz Mountains to the Thuringian Forest: The risk of forest fires in Thuringia remains high with extreme drought, high temperatures and a lack of precipitation. In 29 of the 32 regions designated by the Thüringenforst State Forest Agency, the forest fire hazard level was designated level 4 on Wednesday. This is the second highest level. The info card is therefore still red in red.

In addition to the Heldburg forestry office, the Sonneberg forestry office now also reported level 5 and thus “very high risk of forest fires”. This makes it possible to block extremely endangered forest areas. According to the Thüringenforst, this can be the blocking of bathing lake areas with adjacent pine forests on dry forest floors on very hot days. Only between Oberhof and Schönbrunn was the medium danger level on Wednesday. Thüringenforst has counted 21 forest fires since the beginning of the year. That was around three times as many as in the same period last year. With a total of around 1.8 hectares, the forest fire areas were "fortunately still relatively small," said a spokesman. 2022 is still "a critical forest fire year". The East Thuringian area is particularly endangered due to its large population of pine trees. Because the pine is particularly rich in resin and burns very well. Here it is particularly important for people to behave thoughtfully and with consideration in phases of drought.