Erfurt (dpa/th) - From March 1st, Thuringia's forests will be monitored again. By the end of October, daily assessments should be made of how high the risk of a forest fire is, as Thuringia Forst announced on Tuesday in Erfurt. These assessments should be available on the Internet free of charge as a map. In the remaining months of the year, the danger levels are not determined on a daily basis.
According to Thuringia Forest, more than 22 hectares of forest burned in the state last year. This is the largest area since records began. A total of 69 forest fires were counted. Forest fire statistics have been kept since 1993.
The biggest forest fire there was at the beginning of August in the forestry office in Saalfeld-Rudolstadt. There, a fire had spread to 7 hectares. Most of the forest fires (93 percent) occurred between June and August.
