According to the district fire brigade commander Josef Huber, the precipitation stopped again on Tuesday. So there are still embers and visible open fireplaces. Around 250 helpers were called in at the beginning of the working week in Hirschwang. Against the fire, one should again proceed with punctual drops of water from helicopters. In addition, help came from abroad. After Italy, Slovakia also provided military machines.
However, the two CL-415 Canadair planes sent from Italy on Saturday were retired. The commander also pointed out that the rain had made some paths slippery. That is “a great danger for the emergency services”. The helpers would continue to be secured in the area by mountain rescuers.
The forest fire broke out on Monday last week. The fire spread extremely quickly – from five to more than 100 hectares in ten hours. The cause is still unclear, investigators assume a “foreign ignition source”. According to police spokesman Johann Baumschlager, it was established by means of video recordings from the Rax cable car, among other things, that the flames originated at a point where campfires had been made repeatedly in the past.
