The German town of Monsau, on the border with Belgium, ordered residents of one of its neighborhoods to evacuate their homes immediately yesterday, Sunday evening, due to a massive wildfire ravaging a Belgian forest and spreading toward German territory.
In a statement released around 11:30 p.m. (Greek time), the municipal authorities in this town of about 12,000 residents announced that they had decided to urgently evacuate residents living on two streets, “given the current spread of the fire and smoke” and meteorologists’ forecasts.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
VIDEO: Warehouse in Larnaca’s industrial area engulfed in flames
A boiler room in a home in Ayia Napa was destroyed by fire
Warning messages were sent to residents, for whom a reception and shelter center was set up in a school.
“This measure is intended to protect the population. The fire’s progress is being continuously assessed,” the municipal authority added.
Earlier yesterday, the municipality had already advised residents to evacuate, when the fire front was still 1.5 kilometers from the German border and 1.8 kilometers from the nearest residential area.
The fire in Belgium has burned nearly 30,000 stremmas of dense, hard-to-reach forest. It is considered one of the worst in the country’s history.
This afternoon, the municipality of Monsau emphasized that even if the fire does not spread into German territory, it anticipates “widespread air pollution due to smoke.”
Firefighters from across the region are rushing to support the operation to bring the flames under control, according to a late-night update.
Belgian authorities had ordered the immediate evacuation of residents of the community of Kichelsaid, about a 10-minute drive from Monsau.
Furthermore, on the night of Thursday into Friday, 1,800 residents were forced to flee their homes in western Germany, due to a fire that had spread across about 3,000 stremmata and was threatening homes. Local authorities announced that the fire has now been largely brought under control, according to the German public television network WDR.
Source: APE-MPE
