Dense clouds of smoke on Wednesday afternoon in the Wiener Neustadt district: After a fire broke out in an army training area in the village of Großmittel in the municipality of Haschendorf, the flames spread to Haschendorf. Around 20 fire brigades and five helicopters from the air traffic police and the army were deployed. Five armored personnel carriers from Panzergrenadier Battalion 35 cut a firebreak through the forest (see also video). The fire was largely under control by evening.
Two fires in the Wiener Neustadt district caused a large-scale deployment of the fire brigades: In addition to a forest fire in the Ebenfurth area, the highest alert level was declared for a wildfire in Haschendorf. A total of three police helicopters were used to extinguish the fire on site. In the army ammunition facility in Großmittel A fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon around 1:30 p.m. for reasons unknown. The flames initially spread in the direction of a pine forest, but according to army spokesman Michael Bauer (see tweet above), they were brought under control after a while. According to fire brigade operations manager Eduard Schlögl, the fight against the flames was quite tricky, because they always had “detonations due to octopus” occurs. The total fire area was estimated by the Wiener Neustadt district command at 150 hectares. Strong wind fanned the flames The situation in Haschendorf was different: the flames had spread quickly from the exercise area in Großmittel to the recreation center in Haschendorf due to the strong wind. The fire-fighting attack was also carried out from the air using five helicopters – three H135s from the air traffic police of the Ministry of the Interior and two Alouette IIIs from the army. The water required for this was fetched from the pond of a neighboring holiday home settlement. It was necessary to prevent the flames from spreading to the village. The airport fire brigade also went to the scene. Armored personnel carriers cut fire breaksAs the “Krone” learned, five Ulan-type armored personnel carriers have currently made a fire break through the forest to prevent the flames from spreading to Haschendorf. Around 20 fire brigades from the districts of Baden and Wiener Neustadt, two police helicopters and the army fire brigade were deployed. According to the police, the clouds of smoke could be seen as far as Bucklige Welt. A firefighter from Steinbrunn (Burgenland) also told the “Krone” that you could still smell the smoke there. Although the situation was under control in the evening, the extinguishing work was not initially completed. There were still embers to be removed. A fire watch was also announced by the military command on Thursday night.
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