Danger of forest fires in Brandenburg | tagesschau.de | EUROtoday

The forest hearth season in Brandenburg is already in full swing in mid-May. The highest hazard degree has been declared nationwide. The nation's high hearth marshal nonetheless sees success.

It's the Friday afternoon simply earlier than Pentecost and Brandenburg's forest hearth safety officer Raimund Engel has his arms full. There are fires within the south of the state, in two locations. In addition, there’s a noticeable growth of smoke shortly earlier than the Polish border – presumably a fireplace at a biogas plant, colleagues are at present clarifying this. A fourth hearth is at present being extinguished, virtually proper on the doorstep of the forest hearth middle in Wünsdorf, southeast of Berlin.

Engel follows all the pieces on a big monitor wall. Brandenburg just isn’t solely the federal state with essentially the most forest fires, however can also be a pacesetter in combating them. To do that, you must acknowledge them as shortly as attainable.

Automatic hearth detection

This is basically performed by the early detection system “Fire Watch”. Images from 105 cameras are consistently coming in right here. Each of them mechanically rotates 360 levels; one revolution takes six minutes. Sensors determine the everyday grey values ​​of a smoke cloud within the early part of a forest hearth. “They can evaluate 18,000 shades of gray in comparison to the background,” explains Engel.

In the management middle, self-learning software program then identifies minimal smoke developments and sounds an alarm if obligatory. “This means we can cover around 95 percent of the forest areas,” says Engel. If a cloud of smoke is confirmed by staff to be a fireplace, the alarm is raised. The system gives the coordinates of the supply of the fireplace exactly for particular person parcels of land.

The advanced system is urgently wanted – nowhere else does the forest burn as typically as in Brandenburg. In no different federal state is extra forest space destroyed on common yearly. Extensive pine forests, the dry sandy soil of the Brandenburg area and comparatively low rainfall supply essentially the most favorable situations for hearth.

Forest hearth degree 5 nationwide

This Friday in mid-May, the best forest hearth degree of 5 prevails in all Brandenburg districts. What could be an distinctive state of affairs in another federal states is normality for Engel: “It's a completely average year. Phases like this actually always occur in spring. The stable high pressure situation and “But the wind makes the state of affairs fairly harmful.”

Some rain is forecast for the weekend, however even that shouldn't essentially change the state of affairs, says Engel. Decades of measured values ​​are saved within the forest hearth middle's databases. For angels, each hazard and climate state of affairs is relative.

With a couple of clicks he checks the anticipated quantities of rain and places them in relation to his statistics, the climate report for the next days and presents his evaluation: “The rainfall is unlikely to bring enough rain for the risk of forest fires to be classified as low.”

2024 – a Average 12 months?

The begin of the 12 months was promising from a fireplace safety perspective. There have been many wet days, the bushes and the forest ground have been lastly in a position to absorb water. But Engel doesn't go by feeling, he prefers to have a look at his laptop.

“It felt like it was raining a lot,” he corrects and pulls the following statistic out of the pc. “In terms of rainfall, we're just about average. Only in February was there a lot – in March and April we had less than the average. And May has also been very dry so far.”

He quotes additional columns of numbers. The truth stays: 2024 has been a traditional 12 months up to now. In different phrases: Engel expects many extra fires. “We're just getting started now. The summer months are still coming. I'm expecting extreme heat waves again. This is just a foretaste.”

Engel shortly cites one other statistic: There have been 57 fires up to now this 12 months, not counting Friday's. That's just about the long-term common. And he sees success: “With around 10 hectares affected so far, we are still doing well,” says Engel.

On common, a whole lot of fires – however comparatively little space burned. Success is a relative matter if you find yourself a fireplace officer in Brandenburg.