Firefighting Helicopter Shows Little Effect Against Underground Blaze

Efforts to combat an underground fire at a former coal mining site near Meuselwitz have seen a key tool prove ineffective. A firefighting helicopter, deployed over the weekend, failed to achieve the desired results in extinguishing the blaze.

The helicopter dropped approximately 160,000 liters of water per day over a designated area. However, the Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft (LMBV), the site's owner, reported that the water only offered a temporary reduction in smoke. Drone footage with thermal imaging revealed that the water agitated the surface but did not reach or extinguish the deeper layers of burning coal residue.

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It is therefore no further deployment of a firefighting helicopter planned.

Consequently, no further deployment of the helicopter is planned. The fire, which ignited about two and a half weeks ago, has been contained on the surface but continues to smolder underground across an eight-hectare area. Embers extend about half a meter deep, posing a persistent challenge.

Future strategies involve expanding an existing firebreak and preparing for a large-scale flooding operation. This will require laying two pipelines from a nearby mining pit, a process that needs consent from around 30 landowners. The flooding could take up to 20 days to complete once the pipelines are operational, with the immediate priority being to prevent the fire from spreading to adjacent areas.

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The top priority is currently to prevent the spread of the fire outwards and thus its spread to neighboring areas.