With the devastating forest fire in the Saxon Switzerland National Park, there is still no relief in sight. The Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district office announced on Saturday that it was not raining enough to affect the behavior of the fire and the effort involved in extinguishing the fire. "The weather radar also shows rather restrained precipitation, so that the emergency services assume that no noticeable relaxation is to be expected with the rain." The fire brigade is also still in continuous operation on the Czech side. In contrast, the situation in the forest fire area in southern Brandenburg eased.
The fire brigades in eastern Saxony had hoped for support from the weather. But at noon, district spokesman Thomas Kunz assumed that the expected rainy area might pass Saxon Switzerland entirely.
On Saturday, 350 people were involved in fighting the fire. There are now 13 helicopters on site for fire-fighting flights. In addition, quads have been ordered, with which the supply of the fire-fighting crews can be carried out more easily and quickly. On Friday evening, during a helicopter reconnaissance flight, further fires with heavy smoke were discovered along the German-Czech border in the Zschand and Partschenhorn areas.
The devastating fire in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains broke out in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park in the Czech Republic last weekend and spread to the Saxon Switzerland National Park on Monday. Disaster alert applies in the cities of Bad Schandau and Sebnitz. According to new findings, around 150 hectares of forest are affected by the fire on the German side.
According to the authorities, four firefighters have been injured in the operation so far. Two of them had to be hospitalized. There have been no injuries among the population so far.
On the Czech side in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park, the fire brigade stepped up their efforts. On Saturday, 220 additional forces were pulled together from all over the Czech Republic, as a spokesman said. The number of firefighters in the operation has increased to more than 650. The forest fire raged over an area of 10.6 square kilometers, as confirmed by satellite images. The Bohemian Switzerland National Park borders directly on the Saxon Switzerland.
"We will actively go into the glowing nests, pour water over them and dig up the ground," said fire department spokesman Lukas Marvan on Czech television. The fire-fighting work is supported by eight helicopters and five fire-fighting aircraft. Access to large parts of the national park area has now been banned to keep onlookers away.
In the forest fire area in Brandenburg's Elbe-Elster district on the border with Saxony, however, the situation has eased according to official information. On an area of 500 hectares there are still individual embers that have to be extinguished, according to the administrative staff of the district on Saturday morning. On Friday evening, 250 emergency services were still fighting the flames. The forest fire broke out on Monday and quickly spread to around 800 hectares.
The Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) gave hope to the people in the affected areas of the Free State. "We stick together here. We will master this serious crisis," he said on Saturday afternoon during a visit to Arzberg (Northern Saxony district). In the area bordering Brandenburg, the situation had already eased on Saturday, unlike the fire in Saxon Switzerland.
Kretschmer was emotionally touched: "It takes me away because it's my home in Saxony, because I see how the people here also suffer, how they are on the verge of exhaustion." Present again in 2002 when he himself worked as a disaster relief worker for the Malteser. He now suddenly feels this exhaustion and hopelessness again, but also the strength that existed back then. The day before during a visit to Bad Schandau in Saxon Switzerland, he had said in view of the damage: "It breaks my heart."
On Saturday, Kretschmer estimated the damage and costs for the fire operation at "several million euros". In the future, water management in the forest will also have to be reconsidered. In the past, nature conservation reasons would have stood in the way of this. "We have to evaluate it differently now (...) You have to discuss that professionally." But now it's about helping those who are currently "in the fire," said Kretschmer, referring to the firefighters.
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