“Fire in Giethoorn’s Nature Reserve De Wieden Brought Under Control by Fire Brigade”

The fire raged at De Auken, in nature reserve De Wieden. “A number of fires have been discovered,” said the spokesperson. “But they are all under control now. The area is difficult to reach, but the fire service has now combed the entire area. There does not seem to be any danger of the fire spreading further. No people live there, so houses and buildings have not been in danger.”

The fire brigade has cordoned off a large area around the fire so that people cannot get too close. With water bags and fire whips (tools that look a bit like metal brooms), the sprayers tackled the fire. Local residents were advised to keep windows and doors closed and to turn off the ventilation because of the smoke development.

It was initially difficult for the fire service to estimate the size of the fire, says the spokesman. “We had first scaled up to a large fire, but upon arrival there was talk of a few fires, and it seemed to be not too bad. But when I saw the fire, it looked big again. But the fire has now been extinguished and the fire brigade is packing.

It could have been worse, the spokesperson warns. ,,You might not say it, since it has rained quite a lot, but the reed is quite dry here. This also allowed the fire to spread more quickly. So you always have to be careful with fire, even in such a swampy area.”

The fire brigade could not yet say anything about possible victims, but the chance of this does not seem great since it concerns an uninhabited area. It is also not yet clear what caused the fire. The police will investigate that.

With an area of ​​more than 10,000 hectares, the Weerribben-Wieden National Park is the largest contiguous low moorland in Northwest Europe.