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Major fire on the German border: there is a fire in a Czech national park. Memories of a disastrous fire in the past year quickly come to mind.

On Ascension Day, a forest fire broke out in the Czech National Park Bohemian Switzerland near the border with Saxony. Emergency services were able to bring the fire under control after several hours, as a fire department spokesman from Usti nad Labem (Aussig an der Elbe) announced.

A suspect has been arrested in connection with the forest fire. He is now being investigated on suspicion of endangering the general public. The mayor of the Czech municipality of Hrensko (Herrnskretschen) explained that the arrested person is a 25-year-old man who is said to have handled fireworks under the influence of alcohol.

This coincides with a statement from the neighboring Saxon Switzerland National Park. According to the Czech fire brigade, the fire had meanwhile spread to an area of ​​around 1,200 square meters between the Prebischtor, a sandstone rock gate for day trippers, and the border with Germany.

Because of the holiday, many visitors stayed in the area and were asked not to go up to Pravcická Gate. The fire brigade called out the second highest alert level. Some of the emergency services stay at the scene of the fire overnight to prevent it from flaring up again.

In the Saxon Switzerland National Park, the National Park Guard checked on Thursday whether the fire could cross the border. However, that didn’t happen. The Bad Schandau fire brigade was also on duty for these checks.

At the end of July last year, there was a forest fire in Bohemian Switzerland, which destroyed around 1,600 hectares of forest. At that time, the fire also spread to the neighboring German national park Saxon Switzerland. Arson was also suspected in this case.