The forest fire on the Brocken has spread further. In the meantime, an area of 62 hectares is burning in the Harz Mountains. The fire got out of control on Saturday. People on the summit had to be brought to safety.
A fire below the Brocken summit in the Harz Mountains continued to spread on Sunday night. In the meantime, an area of around 62 hectares of forest is burning, said Wernigerode’s city spokeswoman Ariane Hofmann on Sunday morning after a briefing. The fire broke out on Saturday and was initially not under control on Sunday.
Five firefighting helicopters and more than 300 emergency services are fighting the fire, and a good 50 police forces are currently securing the area around the Brocken, which is closed to visitors. The town of Schierke, which belongs to Wernigerode, is still not at risk, it said.
The Harz narrow-gauge railways do not go up the 1141-meter-high mountain on Sunday. As the railway company announced on its website, there is limited train service between Wernigerode and Drei Annen Hohne.
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The fire was discovered on Saturday around 2:30 p.m. on the so-called Goetheweg near the Goethebahnhof vantage point. The Goetheweg to the Brocken is one of the most frequented hiking trails in the Harz National Park.
It was not until August 11th that a forest fire broke out near Schierke at the foot of the 1141 meter high Brocken. It burned for several days. Roland Pietsch, head of the Harz National Park, spoke of 3.6 hectares of forest with dead spruces that were affected by the fire. On August 14, the fire was considered extinguished. The place where the fire broke out is said to have been near the railway line of the Brockenbahn. The Landeszentrum Wald currently gives the forest fire danger level for the Harz Mountains as three out of five.
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