The Bonn summer of 2018 was the second hottest in history. With extreme heat of up to 39 degrees over many weeks and at the same time hardly any precipitation, the danger of catastrophic fires last year was particularly high.

According to DWD, the eastern states of Germany are particularly affected for 2019. Even if it still rains a lot, soil moisture is estimated to remain below the long-term average as we move into the summer. "The starting conditions for vegetation in 2019 are significantly worse in many areas of Germany than in the previous year."

The DWD estimates that a drought this summer would not only hit agriculture hard once again, but also forestry. And the first forest fires have already struck numerous regions in Germany in recent days.

In view of the drought and the high risk of forest fires, the German National Association of Firefighters is calling for more fire-fighting helicopters in Germany. Hartmut Ziebs, president of the association, told the newspaper "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" that helicopters with external load containers make sense for fighting fires. "This is a widely practiced procedure, but it sometimes is not possible because of the number of available helicopters. According to him, the largest water tanks have a capacity of 5,000 liters and can only be flown by helicopters of type CH-53 of the German Armed Forces. "But they are not always available. The Bundeswehr would have to maintain a few more helicopters here," said Ziebs.

Altogether, Ziebs considers the German fire brigades to be well equipped to fight forest fires. However, the association president appealed to citizens to not light open fires in and around forests and to not smoke near forests. In addition, drivers should not park their cars on grassy areas. "The hot catalytic converters can set dry grass on fire."

From the point of view of a forest expert, the "forest of the future" must be diverse in order to withstand possible forest fires. Structurally rich deciduous forests with different tree species do not dry out and burn as quickly as pure coniferous forests, according to natural scientist Pierre Ibisch from the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. "The large-scale monocultures will fail in the intermediate term."

Orig. text: dpa
Translation: ck