Pfaffendorf (Brandenburg) – 1.1 million hectares, 37 percent of the country’s surface area. Admittedly, there is a lot of forest in the sparsely populated state of Brandenburg. Apparently a bit too much for two fathers who were vacationing in the region.

At 1:30 a.m. the volunteer fire department of Pfaffendorf in the Oder-Spree district received a desperate call. Two fathers and their children (a boy, a girl) got lost in the forest while on a bike ride and didn’t know which way to go. Their emergency call took the fathers to the fire department control center in Frankfurt (Oder), which in turn woke up the local fire chief Ernst Nagel.

Wandering around in the forest since nightfall

Fire Chief Nagel reports: “We then received information that the two adults and the children had been wandering around the forest since nightfall. They had completely lost their bearings.”

A helper brings the bikes to the rescued people waiting at the Pfaffendorf fire station

Photo: BLP / Sappeck

Nagel quickly gathered his volunteers together and set off to search in a fire engine. Luckily for the helpers: “The location data was sent directly to the control center via the father’s cell phone call.” And then ended up on the navigation device in the fire engine that sped through the night: “This allowed us to determine relatively precisely where the missing people were.”

Nevertheless, it was not that easy to reach those who had lost their way, because forest paths are often skipped or not shown by the navigation device.

View from the visitor platform of the observation tower in the Rauen Mountains (Rauener Berge) to the Scharmützelsee in the Oder-Spree district (archive photo)

Foto: picture alliance/dpa

It is pitch black and then comes the tiredness

But fire chief Nagel knows his forest very well and directed the rescuers through the darkness.

He drove along the federal highway 168 into the area between the towns of Beeskow and Storkow. From there he turned right onto a forest path. “From there,” says Nagel, “it was almost child’s play.” The experienced firefighter: “Only about 1.5 kilometers further into the forest we found the two men with their children. They were on three bikes and with a bike trailer.”

The men of the volunteer fire brigade of Pfaffendorf lift the lost holidaymakers’ bikes from the fire engine

Photo: BLP / Sappeck

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Nagel understands well that it is possible to get lost in the forest. “You have no sense of direction. It is pitch black. The moon is a crescent at the moment, giving off practically no light at night. And then at some point you start to get tired.”

And he continued: “The missing people were relieved and grateful that we had located them. We took them to the police station in Pfaffendorf. Exhausted, but not in poor health.”

Holidaymakers surprised on their way back from dusk

According to Nagel, the fathers and children are vacationers. Their vacation accommodation is in Groß-Lindow. They set off from there during the day, driving via Bad Saarow and Beeskow. Through the forest. On the way back, they were apparently surprised by dusk. It is not known whether they were unable to navigate using their cell phones.

The cyclists were also on tour with a bicycle trailer

Photo: BLP / Sappeck

“Always walk straight ahead,” advises the fire department

Fire Chief Nagel: “It is not easy to keep your cool in such a situation when you no longer have any orientation in the dark. Actually, I can only give one piece of advice: always walk straight ahead. Even in Brandenburg At some point there will be a road, a settlement.”

But he has complete understanding for the exhausted cyclists: “It’s scary, you start to feel uneasy at some point. Even with the children. There are also wolves in the forest. So it was good that they called the emergency number.”