Rain has helped firefighters bring forest fires under control in Germany and Belgium, but some hot spots are still smoldering underground. Smoke and the smell of burning can be felt dozens and hundreds of kilometers from the fire, while experts warn of the danger of so-called "zombie fires".
After forest fires which raged in Belgium during the weekend and on Monday, near the border with Germany, as in several German municipalities, the rain helped the firefighters a lot and the situation calmed down. People who were evacuated have returned to their homes. However, the rain could not completely extinguish some fires, he writes Deutsche says.
In several municipalities on the German-Belgian border, citizens were invited to stay indoors. An unpleasant smell was felt, and there was also the possibility of the presence of harmful substances in the air. "A health hazard cannot be ruled out," the municipality announced.
A spokesman for the fire brigade explained that the unpleasant smell originates from the strong smoke created by the smoldering fires in the peat soil. "The soil is actually one big focal surface," he said. During the morning, after the heat, it finally rained, which led to the creation of large amounts of water vapor.
A large fire on the Belgian-German border brought the smell of burning to Cologne and Wuppertal - that is, to a distance of more than 100 kilometers. Cologne firefighters announced that there was a "widespread occurrence of an unpleasant smell" in the area of the city of one million. However, as reported, there is no danger.
In Wuppertal, firefighters warned residents to keep windows and doors closed. Individual reports of the unpleasant smell of burning came from Dusseldorf.
The German firemen's union has asked for better preparation for such fires. "We need prevention for forest fires," said union president Siegfried Mayer on the joint ARD and ZDF morning show.
Thus, fire channels could be made in advance that prevent the spread of fire. All-terrain vehicles are also important, as well as water tanks, in order to quickly provide sufficient quantities of water at the intervention sites.
And the president of the German Fire Brigade Association, Karl-Heinz Banze, advocated better prevention. Firefighter training must change, and forest firefighting must be practiced more.
It is also important to better warn people about how dangerous certain behavior in the forest can be. Campfires, illegal barbecues or discarded cigarettes can cause large fires.
In the Belgian area of Hoge Venen, danger lurks underground: in addition to trees and grass, there are also parts of peat bogs. There, fires can smolder under the surface for a long time, unnoticed. When they break out on the surface, so-called "zombie fires" occur.
Peatland is actually a dried-up wetland that has many layers of plants and roots. The thickness of the peat can be several meters. This makes extinguishing forest fires even more difficult.
"It's just not an ordinary vegetation fire. Peat burns differently than vegetation," Tanya Sanders from the Tene Institute for Forest Ecosystems in Eberswalde explained to dpa.
"The fire mostly spreads invisibly through the underground, which means you can't see exactly where the fire is at all." In the case of vegetation fires, especially forest fires, it is clear where the fire is located, and its spread is much more influenced by the wind.
"With a peatland fire, the fire is mostly underground and through that dried peat it can travel meters below the surface and then re-emerge somewhere else," Sanders said. It is extremely difficult and dangerous for firefighters.
In the Belgian area of Hoge Venen, the extinguishing could last for weeks, predicted the spokesman of the firefighters from Monschau.
Biologist Tobias Soylemans from the University of Antwerp said that the Hoge Venen is actually a wetland that can hardly be set on fire.
However, the area has been drained for decades so that spruce plantations could be built on it for timber production.
"It should be forbidden to build commercial forests on such lands," criticized Soylemans.
"Once the peatland dries out, the fire can spread into the soil and develop as a smoldering fire," Sanders explained. "If it doesn't reach the surface, it's a fire without flames, but with a lot of smoke." The smoke may contain carbon monoxide, a very poisonous gas. Besides, it takes a lot of water to reach the smoldering hot spot.
"I basically have to soak the entire surface. That means huge amounts of water are needed," she explained.
Even months and years later, such a "zombie fire" can cause problems, as the example from France shows.
In the vicinity of Bordeaux, firefighters are still monitoring an area after the fire that broke out in 2022. Over the course of two years, firefighters repeatedly found the remains of the fire.
Prolonged drought and strong winds can suddenly spark new fires elsewhere. Signs can be, for example, glowing roots or clouds of smoke that seem to appear out of nowhere.
"These smoldering fires, which appeared suddenly in places or environments with no visible source, caused us a lot of problems," recalled Mathieu Jomin, commander of the fire and rescue service in the Gironde department, in the days and weeks after the forest fire. "They appeared here and there, without any clear pattern," AFP reports his words. Firefighters gradually removed ash and soil to find hot spots deep below the surface.
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