Forest fires favored by the extreme drought caused emergency services in Brandenburg and Saxony to create problems on Tuesday night.

In Brandenburg, an area near Rehfeld in the south of the state is affected, where firefighters tried to contain a large fire.

According to the Elbe-Elster district, it has spread over an area of ​​800 hectares.

The situation was "very tense," said a spokesman for the fire department in the morning.

The fire is not yet under control.

The first residents had to leave their homes on Monday.

Around 600 people were affected.

The Kölsa settlement in the city of Falkenberg (Elster) is particularly affected, said a spokesman for the fire department of the German Press Agency.

The fire brigade was on site on Tuesday morning with 152 emergency services.

Precursor to disaster alert

In Rehfeld, the situation was very confusing due to strong winds, Deputy Forest Fire Protection Officer Philipp Haase told the German Press Agency on Monday.

According to him, there was a fire in the forest between wind turbines, and at least one system was within the area of ​​the fire.

Among other things, helicopters from the Bundeswehr had been requested for Tuesday, said Haase.

At least seven emergency services were injured during the operation, and six of them were taken to the hospital, the district said.

In addition, a piglet breeding facility in the Kölsa settlement burned down and many animals died.

A forest fire that broke out in the Czech National Park Bohemian Switzerland spread in the Saxon Switzerland National Park.

For the communities of Sebnitz and Bad Schandau, the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district office triggered a preliminary stage to the disaster alarm on Monday, as a spokesman announced in the evening.

Risk decreases from Tuesday

On Tuesday morning, 136 emergency services were still on site, said a spokesman for the district.

A helicopter should explore the situation in the morning.

There were three major deployment sites in the Saxon Switzerland National Park, at the Großer Winterberg restaurant, at the Kipphorn and at the Kleiner Winterberg.

"Our big problem is the wind," said a spokesman for the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district office with a view to the spread of the fire.

While on Monday there was still a high risk of forest fires in some parts of Germany - especially in the east - this should decrease on Tuesday according to the forest fire risk index of the German Weather Service.

However, forest areas continued to burn elsewhere in Europe, for example in Greece, where the risk of further fires is also high on Tuesday.

A forest fire in the southern part of the island of Lesbos, which was still not under control on Monday, has already destroyed around 1,700 hectares.

For Tuesday, the fire brigade again spoke of a "very high risk of forest fires" for Athens and the surrounding area as well as the island of Euboea and the islands of the eastern Aegean.

There is also a “high risk of forest fire” in large parts of the country.

While the forest fires on the southern French Atlantic coast south of Bordeaux are slowly coming under control, the persistent heat in the Mediterranean is causing concern due to rising water temperatures.

The French Observatory for Tornadoes and Severe Thunderstorms has now described the water temperatures, which have risen to almost 30 degrees, as exceptional and very worrying.