Prague: The forest fire that has been raging for nine days at the Bohemian Switzerland National Park in northern Czech Republic was brought under control, the country’s fire rescue service (FRS CR) has said.
“We have the outbreaks completely under control. But our work is not over, now we still have to extinguish and dispose of them all,” the fire rescue service tweeted.
FRS CR Director General Vladimir Vlcek said the fire was not spreading to farther places and the area in which the firefighters were working had decreased to about 600 hectares, Xinhua news agency reported.
The intervention in the huge fire might end by extinguishing works in a few days, he was quoted by the Czech News Agency as saying.
Around 1,000 firefighters have been battling the blaze at the park on Monday. 200 tanker trucks, 18 helicopters and five planes have also been deployed.
According to the fire rescue service, firefighters will continue to tackle the fire on Tuesday “with the same intensity as today.”
“We are now concentrating on changing forces, maintaining equipment, checking the fire scene and eliminating small outbreaks in places that are completely under our control,” it said.
The fire broke out on July 24. In the past days, countries including Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Germany and Sweden have sent firefighting aircraft to help tackle the fire.
According to the fire rescue service, four firefighters had minor injuries on Monday. So far, they have recorded a total of 56 injuries, most of which are minor.
–IANS
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