Push by LH Drexler

“We still don’t have the situation under control”

The army is also being deployed to extinguish the fire.(Bild: Feuerwehr Mariazell)

After the storm on Easter Monday, the forest fire in Wildalpen in Upper Styria is still keeping the emergency services busy. Around 90 firefighters are currently battling the flames. Meanwhile, the federal states are demanding more money from the federal government to combat such incidents.

"We still don't have the situation under control." Hubert Failmayer, commander of the Wildalpen fire department, makes no secret of the current situation in an interview with the "Krone" newspaper. A good 80 hectares of forest are still in flames. "The biggest problem is the impassable, steep terrain that is difficult to access," explains Failmayer. 

Since Tuesday, the Austrian Armed Forces in Wildalpen have also been providing support from the air.(Bild: Feuerwehr Mariazell)

Two days of extinguishing work
The firefighters therefore have to be flown to the operation area by helicopter. Due to the steepness of the terrain, a rescue team from the mountain rescue service is also on standby just in case.

The fire-fighting work has already been underway for two days, and since Tuesday has also been supported by the army helicopter. A Black Hawk and two Agusta Bell helicopters are in operation and are primarily used to transport the fire-fighting teams to the scene of the fire.

The forest fire in Großreifling is now under control thanks to the efforts of the firefighters.(Bild: ÖA 08 OBI Grader)

Fortunately, the forest fire in Großreifling (Liezen district) is now under control. To be on the safe side, there will be reconnaissance flights with the drone of the Vordernberg fire brigade on Wednesday.

Forest fires on this scale are actually unusual for this time of year. And this is now also attracting political attention. On Wednesday, the provincial governors' conference in St. Pölten decided, at the request of Styrian state leader Christopher Drexler (ÖVP), to demand an amendment to the Forest Fund Act from the federal government. This should ensure the future financing of the necessary equipment for the fire department on a permanent basis.

"Making funding more practical"
"We can see from the major forest fires in Styria just how important it is to have the best equipment for these difficult operations. The federal government is therefore urgently called upon to work with us provinces to secure funding in the long term and to make funding more practical," says Drexler. He calculates that in Styria, for example, equipment (including all-terrain fire-fighting vehicles, mobile forest fire-fighting modules, swap bodies, etc.) with a total value of 5.7 million euros is needed, but this is currently only matched by freely available funds amounting to 630,000 euros.