Human negligence is the number one cause of fire in nature. Fireworks at Mainfest approved with strict conditions.
The effects are not yet as catastrophic as in Berlin’s Grunewald, but there are also forest fires in the Rhine-Main area again and again. Near Hainburg (Offenbach district) there was a forest area of around 2500 square meters on Thursday evening, in the Taunus near the Sandplacken it burned on Wednesday evening as well as in the Frankfurt districts of Schwanheim and Griesheim. In the case of the fires near Hainburg and in Frankfurt, the police even assume arson, but far more often such fires are caused by human negligence, as Peter Rodenfels from Frankfurt’s city forester knows: “90 percent of the fires break out near forest paths, what human causes.”
Due to the rain on Friday, the risk of forest fires was reduced for a short time, but by Monday it would probably have reached the highest level again, according to Rodenfels. The rain doesn’t help much, because the grass and bushes, which are already scorched, are no longer turning green. “Even blackberries have withered, it burns like tinder.”
Stadtforst Frankfurt manages around 5,000 hectares of forest. The employees are currently on patrol trips more frequently. “They have been commissioned to increasingly drive to wild meadows because there are always illegal parties there,” says Rodenfels. Walkers who smoke a cigarette would also be taken to task. Normally, forbidden smoking is classified as an administrative offence, but given the current high risk of forest fires, such a violation could also be criminally relevant, warned the deputy head of the city forest department in the green space office.
The Frankfurt fire brigade is trying to adapt to the forest fire risk, which has been increasing for years. In the coming year, the emergency vehicles should also have thinner and therefore lighter hoses, which are easier to handle on the mostly long routes to the source of the fire in the forest. The fire brigade has been prepared for forest fires for years, as Veith Bosenbecker, head of the civil protection department, knows: “We have created a digital map network with the passable paths, in which the water intake points are also mapped.” could dry out. In some places in the forest there are also fire hydrants. Larger tank extinguishing vehicles are also stationed in the fire stations in Sachsenhausen and Nied. The network of paths in the Frankfurt city forest is also very well developed and no comparison to some forest areas in central Hesse.
Bosenbecker also sees human error as the clear number one cause of forest fires. However, he considers the fact that broken glass could trigger a forest fire to be “a purely theoretical consideration”. In reality, in addition to discarded cigarette butts, cars are more likely to cause fires. Their catalytic converters get pretty hot and can ignite dry grass when driving on field and forest paths.
The fireworks are also to be lit on Monday at the Mainfest. “We have received a huge catalog of editions, but we can ignite,” says Christian Müller, the event manager of the organizing tourism and congress company. However, the rockets may only be fired in the direction of the Main. The climbing height will be much lower, and a large number of fire extinguishers and fire guards must be available. The requirements are not entirely new. A similar situation existed in 2019. Summers are generally drier.
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