The fire that started in the Hürtgenwald on 13 August is the largest forest fire recorded in North Rhine-Westphalia since official record-keeping began in 1991. It took about 300 hectares. Up to 1,800 emergency personnel worked on it, alongside helicopters, the Bundeswehr and aid organisations — and alongside volunteers, many of them farmers who turned up with their own water tanks and tractors.
The 1,800 residents of Gey, in the municipality of Hürtgenwald, were evacuated overnight into 14 August. They were allowed home on the evening of 15 August, once the fire was judged contained. Five people were injured.
What made this fire harder than its size suggests is under the forest floor. The Hürtgenwald was the site of one of the longest battles fought on German soil in the Second World War, and unexploded ordnance is still in the ground across the area. On the night of 14 August, according to the district administrator, munitions detonated inside the burning zone. Crews could not simply advance on the flames; where they went was decided by what might be buried there.
Why it is on the board
It reached us through video rather than through a most-read list — clips from the fire lines were among the fastest-climbing German news videos in our collection. The tagesschau clip that carried furthest is not the fire itself but the volunteers: farmers driving slurry tankers to a forest fire because the fire service could not get enough water up the hill.
확인: Feuerwehrmagazin · Kreis Düren