Firefighters in Germany will have to battle flames in the northern Harz district for days, but the fire is no longer spreading there, a fire chief reported on Saturday.
“We managed to extinguish the fire with a lot of manpower and technology,” said Kai-Uwe Lohse, fire chief of the Harz district. The flames raged over a length of 1,000 meters at Königsberg, a sub-peak of the Brocken, the highest mountain in the area.
According to district officials, firefighters in aircraft battled the flames into the evening.
Earlier, long plumes of smoke had been visible drifting across the mountainside as firefighters worked non-stop in the summer heat and helicopters and fire-fighting planes flew overhead.
To increase the effectiveness of the measures, a fire-retardant chemical was added to the water. This is a first for Germany as a country, Lohse said.
However, the fire brigade is preparing for deployment in the coming days, he said.
“We expect a few days, but hope that Monday’s major weather change will put an end to the situation,” Lohse said.
The fire brigade fears that glowing remains in the ground could cause new fires and that the wind could also fan the flames.
Emergency workers are cutting protective strips into the ground and creating paths to prevent the fire from spreading and to allow water vehicles access.
The risk of forest fires is currently very high in large parts of Saxony-Anhalt. According to the German Meteorological Service, warm and dry weather is expected until Sunday, after which rain is predicted.
