The sky of Berlin took on exceptional appearances in the heart of summer, with wisps of white smoke visible from afar above a large wooded area in the south-west of the German capital, Grunewald, very popular with walkers.
At regular intervals explosions sounded in the morning.
“This is an unprecedented event in Germany in post-war history,” said Berlin Mayor Francisa Giffey, calling on residents to “close their windows”. However, no injuries were reported.
“The fire is now well under control,” a spokesman for the fire department told AFP in the middle of the day.
“But the situation is totally unusual because we have munitions of war” on the site, which prevent relief from deploying without precaution, he added.
Nearly 250 firefighters and police have been deployed, as well as equipment from the German army, with at least one tank to recover explosives, an armored robotic deminer, drones. Police helicopters flew over the area constantly.
Firefighters brought in water from a nearby river and lake to try to douse the flames.
A security zone of one km around the place of storage of ammunition has been set up.
“The fire spread over an area of ??15,000 square meters, first on a police ammunition and explosives warehouse and defusing site, then in the surrounding forest,” according to the firefighters.
This deposit, installed in Grunewald, contains 25 tons of explosive materials.
He is in charge of carrying out controlled exhibitions of the devices entrusted to him, including World War II bombs, still a legion to be buried in the Berlin basement.
“We call on people not to enter the forest, there is danger for their lives in the perimeter of the fire”, according to the spokesperson for the firefighters, “we do not yet know what started the fire , the police are investigating.
– Drought –
Several explosions from the ammunition depot were heard, the last by an AFP journalist around 11 a.m. local time (0900 GMT).
This forest fire also caused disruptions on several train lines crossing the area. Roads have been closed. However, no homes were affected.
It is very rare for the German capital to be the victim of such fires.
But with the drought affecting all of Europe, it is increasingly threatened due to the importance of its wooded areas, a particularity of this metropolis of 4 million inhabitants.
Berlin has 29,000 hectares of forest, making it one of the most forested capitals in the world.
Much of it is now dry. Already, all around Berlin in the Brandenburg region, several forest fires have broken out since the beginning of the summer. One of them ravaged more than 850 hectares.
Southeastern Germany, on the border with the Czech Republic, has been fighting for several days to put out a forest fire.
Much of the country is in a state of “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, including Berlin, according to the UFZ institute for environmental research.
According to scientists, repeated heat waves are an unequivocal marker of global warming and these heat waves are expected to multiply, lengthen and intensify.
The rise in temperatures and the multiplication of heat waves and droughts create ideal conditions for forest fires or bush fires.
