Overrun by flames:deadly disaster in the heath

Drought, heat and wind:In August 1975 devastating fires raged in the Südheide and in Wendland. The emergency services couldn't get them under control for days. Five firefighters and two other helpers die. 82 people are injured.

At the beginning of August 1975 it was unusually hot and dry in Lower Saxony. It has not rained in many places for about two months, the temperatures are constantly above 30 degrees. Instead of the usual 80, the humidity is only 20 to 30 percent. There is also a strong wind blowing. 45 years ago, a forest fire broke out over several square kilometers near Stüde in the district of Gifhorn. Further fires flare up on August 9th and 10th in the Südheide near Gifhorn and Celle. In the prevailing conditions, they spread rapidly and threaten to get out of control.

Fire walls 20 meters high - volunteer fire brigade in constant use

With so many sources of fire, it is difficult to get sufficient personnel and tank fire engines to each individual fire. At that time, Dieter Witt was the group leader of the Unterlüß volunteer fire brigade near Celle. Years later, in an interview with NDR, he recalled August 10:"The Unterlüß volunteer fire brigade sent eight men to Eschede. It was so hot that the tank fire engines left tracks on the asphalt." The flames find fuel in the extensive pine monocultures, but also in the broken wood that was left behind by the hurricane "Quimburga" in 1972. The wind also fuels the fire and creates walls of fire up to 20 meters high.

"The fire came over the stubble"

Witt is on duty with a fire engine at Queloh and is fighting the flames there with colleagues:"The fire came across the stubble field. We pumped water from a cistern with a simple pump. I drove alone over burning tar roads. That was sometimes life-threatening , but we knew each other well."

Ramped by flames:five firefighters die

Firefighters are also fighting the flames near Meinersen in the Gifhorn district. Rolf Lüders and Manfred Tschesche belong to the Hohenhameln fire brigade, which, together with a group from Fallersleben, is sent into the forest to put out the fire. Suddenly the wind turns, carrying the fire in a different direction. The situation spirals out of control. "It was a really loud howling, such a suction," Lüders recalled in an interview with NDR 1 Lower Saxony. "There were burning branches everywhere, igniting new fire." The firefighters decide to flee, run for their lives and reach the emergency vehicle from Fallersleben, whose escape route has now been cut off by the fire. In fear of death, Lüders keeps running - but his 16-year-old colleague Hartmut Oelkers stays. A helicopter operating over the area cannot save the firefighters - it does not have a rescue winch on board. Oelkers and the men from Fallersleben are run over by the barrage of fire.

When the general chaos cleared up a bit and the situation relaxed a bit, Manfred Tschesche, now 71 years old, was sent back to clarify what happened. And comes across the burned bodies of five men. "No more uniform, no helmet, no face," said Tschesche.

District director misjudges the danger - district president declares a disaster

After this tragedy, the criticism of those responsible at the county level has become louder and louder. But for a long time they continue to insist that they can fight the fires on their own. "It wasn't taken that seriously back then. And it was said, as is so often the case:'Dat is us Füer' (that's our fire)!" Celle district director Axel Bruns apparently recognized the extent of the disaster too late and decided not to call for additional emergency services on August 10th. On the same day, Lüneburg District President Hans-Rainer Frede finally declared the disaster and asked the other federal states for immediate help. In the course of events, Bruns later has to vacate his post.

Help from all over Germany

In the days that followed, thousands of people from all over Germany fought against the devastating fires. Fire brigades from Hamburg, Bremen and Frankfurt rush to help. Federal border guards, customs and members of the forest administration are on duty. The German Red Cross, the Malteser Hilfsdienst and other aid organizations take care of the needs of the firefighters and the evacuees. British and Dutch units stationed in the Lüneburg Heath also take part. However, communication proves to be problematic:different radio channels and overloaded telephone lines make agreements difficult.

Planes and police helicopters in action

Those responsible have high hopes for the use of three French fire-fighting aircraft and numerous police helicopters. But often the water thrown off in sacks simply fizzles out in the hot air. Heavy armored recovery vehicles of the Bundeswehr roll wide aisles into the forest to prevent the fire from spreading any further.

Wrangling about competence stands in the way of quick success

While the emergency services in the Südheide are fighting the flames at the forefront, a dispute over competences is raging between the decision-makers at state and municipal level, leading to delays and misunderstandings. As a result, many units act independently and do not achieve the desired effect. In the middle of the week, Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Rötger Groß (FDP) dismissed the previous head of operations, General Paul Kühne from the Federal Border Police. He appoints Lieutenant Colonel Albert Mally as his successor.

Fire also in Wendland - firebreaks through tanks

On the morning of August 12, another column of smoke is discovered near Trebel in Wendland. However, in 1975 it took a lot of time to alert the local fire services. At the time, Walter Ziegeler was the head of the department for fire brigades and civil protection at the Lüchow district administration:"There was still no central alarm control system," he once recalled in an interview with NDR. "You dialed manually, nice and good, using the dial, so that the sirens were set on site." Unlike in the Südheide, however, the Lüchow-Dannenbergers do not hesitate to ask for help. Thanks to good contacts, the Lüneburg Panzerbrigade 8 made tanks available to lay firebreaks within a few hours. Bundeswehr helicopters provide an overview from the air.

Fire threatens towns, residents flee

On August 12, the fire near Lüchow-Dannenberg destroyed 2,000 hectares of forest and arable land and came dangerously close to several villages. Many of them have to be evacuated. As the fire spreads east towards the GDR border, there are warnings to the GDR authorities. "Around 7.30 p.m. it got tight. The wind changed, so that the fire spread towards the villages. The population had to be warned. We really had to do to protect the villages from the fire. We managed to do that," he said Bricker.

Dramatic aerial rescues

Customs, BGS and the police are responsible for traffic control and air surveillance - and they also have to take care of emergency services on the ground who are in danger. "The police helicopters used loudspeakers to get some firefighters out who would otherwise have been burned," says Ziegeler, recalling the dramatic rescue operations. Also near Celle, helicopters rescue trapped soldiers from a clearing and guide firefighters out of a danger zone. On August 13, a forest area of ​​50 square kilometers was in flames. Some towns have to be evacuated. In the small village of Hustedt, the fire destroyed several houses. In the district of Gifhorn, on the other hand, the fire has already been largely contained by this point.

Gas pipe is converted to water pipe

The water supply turns out to be one of the central problems in firefighting. Too few and too small tank extinguishing vehicles and long distances to the next source make the work difficult for the emergency services. In the Südheide, the German Armed Forces are providing a little help by building a pipeline for fire-fighting water that is several kilometers long. A gas pipe is converted into a water pipe. In Lüchow-Dannenberg, a Westerholz freight forwarder is providing six large tankers.

250 km smoke plume

In addition to the major fires, the emergency services also have to fight smaller fires, for example at Undeloh, Winsen/Luhe and Bad Harzburg. The enormous extent of the catastrophe is shown by a photograph taken by a Soviet satellite:a 250-kilometer plume of smoke over Lower Saxony. At the height of the fire, 15,000 firefighters and around 11,000 soldiers from the Bundeswehr are on duty, along with countless other helpers.

Emergency personnel fully challenged for ten days

The disaster alarm was not lifted until August 18th. The sad balance:five firefighters died in the flames, two helpers also died of heart failure. More than 80 people were injured during the extinguishing work, many of them suffered severe burn injuries. For many, it must have been the hardest assignment they have ever had. Nature also suffers severe damage:a total of more than 13,000 hectares of forest, moorland and heathland have been destroyed by the flames.

Causes never fully explained

The causes of the devastating fires in August 1975 can never be fully explained. Cigarettes, arson, flying sparks from the train - it was probably a multitude of triggers that ultimately led to the catastrophe.

The lessons of the disaster

Those responsible draw numerous lessons from the mistakes and inadequacies in fighting the fires:The fire brigade draws up forest fire action maps, creates vehicles with all-wheel drive, multi-channel radio equipment and tank fire engines with a larger capacity. If the forest fire warning level is appropriate, the fire brigade flight service monitors the forests. In addition, paved access roads are laid to make it easier for emergency vehicles to get to the fire. Numerous extinguishing water extraction points and ponds should guarantee the water supply.

Since 2007, the Lüneburg forest fire control center operated by the Lower Saxony State Forests has been monitoring around 400,000 hectares of forest in Lower Saxony's main risk areas. As soon as level 3 of the forest fire risk index has been reached in several locations, the forest fire control center is manned regularly. The employees evaluate the results of 20 forest fire surveillance cameras, which document smoke development at an early stage with an all-round view of more than ten kilometers, and can accordingly quickly alert the emergency services.

Climate change requires new fire protection concepts

Nevertheless, forest and moor fires have repeatedly caused great destruction with long-term consequences in the recent past. During the week-long moor fire near Meppen in Emsland in autumn 2018, around 1,000 hectares of moor were destroyed. At least 500,000 tons of CO2 were released by the fire. And the risk of more fires occurring during long periods of drought as a result of climate change is likely to continue to rise. The state of Lower Saxony, for example, wants to counteract this with an action plan.