About 80 firefighters are still busy extinguishing the devastating forest fire in Gänserndorf (Lower Austria). Due to the heavy smoke, about twenty homes were briefly evacuated on Tuesday evening.
An extensive firefighting operation was carried out that night. Using a drone, embers were detected and fought. District commander Georg Schicker hoped that the fire could be extinguished in the evening. However, the extinguishing work was difficult.
Very dry soil
Tuesday morning, the task was to dig up the affected area “meter by meter, which is hard physical work,” Schicker said. The high temperatures and very dry ground made fighting the fire difficult. There is a risk that the embers will be rekindled by the wind, the district fire chief said.
100 hectares affected
On Monday afternoon, a field fire initially broke out, which then spread to a forest fire southeast of Gänserndorf. According to Schicker, an area of around 100 hectares was affected. When the flames spread to a settlement and a stud farm, around twenty buildings were temporarily evacuated.
“Fire spread under control”
This measure was also necessary because of the smoke pollution, it was said. The Red Cross provided 19 people and six animals at the elementary school; the residents were able to return home in the evening. The fire was limited to an uninhabited area. “We got the spread of the fire under control very quickly,” Schicker said Tuesday. So far, 34 fire brigades with more than 235 members have been deployed.
Source: Krone
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