A forest fire broke out at a steep point in the Saxon Switzerland National Park. The extinguishing work was difficult. Emergency services are looking forward to the next few days with concern.
Rathen – A forest fire broke out below the bastion in Saxon Switzerland on Monday night. More than 100 firefighters were on duty to get the flames and embers under control, as the district office of the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district in Pirna announced.
The work was very difficult because there was a fire on a steep slope with a height difference of 190 meters. For the most part, the emergency services had to secure themselves with ropes. Two of them injured themselves.
The fire was reported around 12:30 a.m., said district spokesman Thomas Kunz. The fire spread over an area of about 2,500 square meters. Among other things, water from the Elbe was used to extinguish the fire. The cause of the fire was provisionally unclear, as was the amount of damage caused.
“I thank the comrades for their determined and consistent commitment,” said District Administrator Michael Geisler (CDU). “The fire services worked together in an exemplary manner and were thus able to effectively contain the spread of the fire under these extreme conditions.”
At the same time, Geisler complained that forest band operations put a considerable strain on the communities because they had to bear the costs. Some of these are in the six-digit range. “We urgently need a solution that compensates for this additional expenditure, for example through a Saxony-wide forest fire prevention plan,” demanded the district administrator.
The risk of forest fires is expected to increase further in Saxony over the next few days. In the northern part of the Free State, the highest warning level 5 is predicted on Tuesday and Wednesday. dpa
