Prague, July 26 (BNA) Hundreds of firefighters are battling forest fires in eastern Germany and neighboring Czechia, today, Tuesday, while tourist and residential areas have been evacuated.
A large forest fire was spreading rapidly in the eastern German state of Brandenburg in an area with a lot of dry pine forests where firefighters have to be especially careful due to old World War II ammunition still buried there, dpa news agency reported.
The large fires in the Elbe Elster region have already destroyed an area of about 850 hectares and continue to spread rapidly due to high winds blowing from changing directions, according to reports.
Authorities said it was not clear when the fire could be brought under control. More than 350 firefighters are battling the flames and about 300 people have been evacuated from various villages.
In the southeast, firefighters from several countries united to fight a fire in a national park in the northern Czech Republic that spread to the neighboring state of Saxony in Germany.
A fire broke out in a bohemian garden in Switzerland on Sunday and was contained before inclement weather caused it to spread again on Monday afternoon and into the night. Despite their efforts, firefighters said the fire had spread from 30 hectares earlier Tuesday to 1,000 hectares.
Dozens of German children were evacuated from a summer camp on the Czech side of the border and taken to Germany.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Interior Minister Vit Rakosan will visit the region on Tuesday.
Rakosan said about 400 firefighters were working and that the flames had not been brought under control by midday on Tuesday.
Poland and Slovakia said they would send helicopters, while Italy offered special aircraft from Canada designed to fight the fires.
The German army has announced that it will send four helicopters to the border area to help put out the flames, the German news agency (dpa) reported.
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