Several hundred people have been evacuated since Monday in eastern Germany due to several fires, where temperatures have been particularly high for several weeks.
Some 700 people were thus evacuated in several localities in the south of Brandenburg, a region surrounding Berlin, due to a forest fire which now extends over 850 hectares, said the district of Elbe-Elster in a press release.
“So far, it is not possible to predict when the fire will be brought under control,” the statement said.
Some 350 people are mobilized to fight the fire, supported in particular by army helicopters.
The fire, which broke out for an unknown reason in a wooded area with wind turbines, quickly spread under the effect of strong gusts of wind.
A pig fattening facility also burned down.
A little further south, a fire that broke out on Sunday in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park in the Czech Republic has now spread to German territory, in Saxony.
“We urge guests, tourists and hikers to avoid the area of Saxon Switzerland so as not to hinder the intervention forces in their work,” the district of the city of Pirna explained in a press release.
The intervention is always difficult because of the difficulties of access to the land in this hilly area and the difficulties of water supply.
For several days, Germany has been hit by an intense heat wave where temperatures have sometimes approached 40 degrees Celsius over a large part of the territory.
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