Heat and Drought: Forest Burns, Ammunition Explodes

Wildfires are raging in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia, with a particularly severe blaze in Hürtgenwald posing significant challenges for firefighters. The Eifel community of Großhau has so far been spared the worst, but the sky is choked with smoke, and the air thick with the smell of burning. Helicopters continuously drop water tanks near Großhau, attempting to contain the worst forest fire in the region's history.

The situation is complicated by the presence of exploding ammunition buried in the forest floor, making firefighting efforts perilous. Police have blocked the B399 federal road leading towards the inferno, but local farmers are aiding firefighters by bringing water with their tractors. Emergency vehicles from various services, including fire departments, the Red Cross, and the police, are a constant presence on the roads.

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If you have seen the fire wall – the trees are already tall and then it burns a few meters above the crown – if you have seen that, then you go and don't start discussing.

While Großhau avoided evacuation, the neighboring settlement of Gey, home to over 2,000 residents, was not so fortunate. They were roused from their beds and evacuated overnight as a safety precaution, with a nursing home and a horse farm also being cleared. The fire is currently between 150 and 200 meters from Gey, a village within the Hürtgenwald municipality near the Belgian border. The evacuees were initially sheltered in a local school and a shooting range, with many later finding refuge with friends or relatives as smoke spread, even reaching Bonn, 50 kilometers to the east.

Hürtgenwald's mayor, Stephan Cranen, described the scene as "somewhat apocalyptic" and has been working around the clock. He noted that two smaller fires had occurred on Thursday before the larger one erupted. The wind shift prompted the decision to evacuate Gey. The district administrator, Ralf Nolten, stated that there was no resistance to the evacuation, as the sight of the "fire wall" – flames extending meters above the treetops – was enough to compel immediate action.

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somewhat apocalyptic