Brandenburg Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) and Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) briefed each other on Sunday afternoon in Treuenbrietzen. The situation is peaking dramatically, Stübgen said. Woidke said: “We have to wait for the situation to continue to get worse.” About 600 people had to leave their homes. “There may be more evacuations,” he said. Johanniter Hospital in Treuenbrietzen was also preparing for a precautionary evacuation.
“We currently have 1,400 emergency services deployed,” Woidke said. Mainly there are comrades of the volunteer firefighters from Brandenburg, but there are also those from Saxony-Anhalt. In addition, help is expected from Berlin. According to Woidke, there are also Bundeswehr soldiers and forces from the Federal Technical Assistance Agency and other rescue organizations.
Treuenbrietzen is about 80 kilometers southwest of Berlin and 40 kilometers from Potsdam. The fire broke out on Friday in a 60-hectare pine forest. The situation appeared to have stabilized on Saturday: the flames were contained on 40 hectares. But on Sunday night there was talk of about 100 hectares of fire area, on Sunday it was already 200 hectares. This corresponds to about 280 football fields. In 2018, a forest fire occurred on 400 hectares in the same area. Woidke said the situation is now even more dramatic than it was in 2018.
The evacuated districts included Frohnsdorf, Tiefenbrunnen and Klausdorf. People left their homes quickly, with suitcases and bags, with dogs and cats, as district spokeswoman Andrea Metzler said. “You know how it works, many were in the situation in 2018 with the big wildfire.” Many people stayed with friends or relatives.
In addition, the Treuenbrietzen town hall served as emergency accommodation. A woman in her 80s who had taken refuge there appeared visibly kidnapped on Sunday afternoon. The worst is when you have to leave the house, turn the key and not know if it will still exist tomorrow, she said in an interview with a DPA reporter.
Treuenbrietzen with a total of 7,500 inhabitants has about a dozen districts. Overall, the city spreads over an area of over 200 square kilometers. For comparison: Berlin is almost 900 square kilometers.
The city center was nearly deserted on Sunday afternoon, as a DPA reporter reported. There was a faint smell of burning in the air. A police barrier was set up at the B102 roundabout. Vehicles from the Federal Technical Assistance Agency passed through the city with blue lights flashing. A blue police water cannon was brought in to help put out the fire. The fire brigade was heading towards the blocked B102 with large fire trucks. Behind them came a German Red Cross column with several vans.
Fighting the flames is particularly difficult in the area: as ammunition and explosive devices are on the floor of a former blasting and training area, firefighters cannot approach the fire. If fire passes through the area, ammo hidden in the ground may explode. In dozens of firefighting flights, Bundeswehr helicopters pulled tens of thousands of liters of water from a nearby quarry pond and extinguished it from above.
The second forest fire near Beelitz took place in the same district of Potsdam-Mittelmark. According to Mayor Bernhard Knuth, by early evening there were 200 hectares – the same size as in Treuenbrietzen, but under control. Strong gusts of wind, which could fan the fire, are to be expected during the night. “So we wait for the expected rain,” Knuth said.
In the city, residents of three streets were taken to safety as a precaution, the mayor said. If the current wind direction remains the same, other residents may have to be taken to safety because of the smoke. Other evacuation plans for a clinic in Beelitz-Heilstätten have been prepared, but we hope they will not be used, Knuth said. There is a great willingness to help in the city, Knuth emphasized. Emergency accommodation is available in gyms, hotels, guesthouses and asparagus farms.