BERLIN: A wildfire the size of more than 500 soccer fields spread southwest of the German capital on Friday, leading to the evacuation of three villages.

Efforts to extinguish the flames were complicated by old ammunition from World War II that is still buried in the forests around Berlin and could explode in the fire.

“The ammunition is very dangerous, because one cannot step on the ground and therefore one cannot get close to the fire” to extinguish it, Brandenburg Governor Dietmar Woidke told reporters.

More than 500 people had to leave their homes on Thursday night as a result of the fire in the Treuenbrietzen region, some 50 kilometres outside of Berlin. Treuenbrietzen belongs to the eastern German state of Brandenburg.

“The fire continues to be a big threat,” Woidke said. “But we will do everything to protect people’s property.” Local lawmaker Christian Stein said there had already been several detonations due to the ammunition, and that firefighters were not allowed to enter suspicious areas. Instead, the authorities were trying to douse the flames in those areas with firefighting helicopters and water cannons.

The fire started Thursday afternoon and spread quickly through the dry pine forests. By the evening, the authorities had evacuated the villages of Frohnsdorf, Klausdorf and Tiefenbrunnen.

“Something like that, we didn’t even experience during the war,” 76-year-old Anita Biedermann told dpa as police told her to grab her jacket, ID and important medication from her home before taking her to a nearby gym for the night.

Overnight, winds blew the smoke to Berlin, where people in some neighbourhoods were asked to keep their windows closed. Berlin emergency services received calls from concerned Berliners who were woken by the strong smell of smoke.

More than 600 firefighters and soldiers were brought in to battle the wildfire.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2018