In addition to a vehicle convoy with almost 30 helpers, 47 emergency services arrived at the camp by charter flight from Vienna Airport. The main task on Saturday was to protect residential areas threatened by the flames and to carry out firefighting, the Lower Austrian state fire brigade command announced in a broadcast.
The Lower Austrian contingent will work in two shifts of 30 members each, “to allow the team to recover after the physically demanding mission and to achieve a longer deployment time per day,” the broadcast said. Pilots from the French fire brigade who are familiar with the area were integrated into the Lower Austria special forest fire service in order to enable and ensure rapid and targeted action.
Demanding use at 30 degrees
Kilometers of driving through burned forest, deserted ghost towns and columns of smoke visible from afar were the first impressions for the Lower Austria emergency services, “which only gave an idea of the huge extent of the forest fire,” said the state fire brigade command in the afternoon: “Again and again, embers are ignited and Ground fires are spreading.” The emergency services, on the other hand, proceed with ground tools by cutting aisles and digging up superficially. The physically demanding work is made more difficult by temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius.
Other European countries are also supporting the extinguishing work in France, where massive fires are raging in several regions. The Lower Austrian helpers are deployed in the most severely affected department of Gironde in the southwest of the country, specifically in the municipality of Hostens in the administrative district of Bordeaux. The vehicle convoy started on Thursday evening and the charter flight took off on Friday evening.
In the meantime, it has been possible to stop the spread of the forest fires in the south-west. “The fire could not advance any further overnight thanks to the significant resources deployed,” the local prefect tweeted. This allowed an important motorway to be reopened before weekend traffic began.
Source: Nachrichten
