Fire watchtower

Standardized fire watchtower built in the GDR in the Gördenwald in Brandenburg an der Havel

View 360 ° panorama from the fire watch tower on the Rennberg
as a spherical panorama

A fire watchtower is a tower that was once built in cities , more recently mainly in forests , and is used to look for and thus early detection of fires . Other types of towers are also suitable for preventive observation.

Fighting forest fires

Fire watchtowers are primarily used to fight or early detection of forest fires . Such towers have a height that extends with their viewing platform over the treetops , and usually allow a wide all-round view. Often such fire watch towers are built on raised points such as hilltops or mountain tops .

In earlier decades, fire watch towers were erected more or less extensively in forests . The observation posts were manned at forest fire warning levels. In the meantime, monitoring is increasingly ensured by means of optical sensors and so-called automatic forest fire early warning systems (AWFS), with the sensor systems and transmitter systems being installed on the existing towers. In such a case, an occupation is no longer necessary.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chtioui Yvonne, Kaulfuß Susann: Forest fire monitoring . Released March 4, 2011. Accessed December 19, 2015.
2. ↑ Forest fire monitoring Forest fire early detection system "Fire Watch" ® . State of Brandenburg (ed.). Accessed December 19, 2015.