Forest fire in the Primkenau Forest
The forest fire in the Primkenau Forest was triggered on August 15, 1904 by flying sparks from a steam locomotive and destroyed the village of Neuvorwerk in Lower Silesia and large areas of forest in the area.
Starting position
To the southwest of Prinkenau lies an extensive forest area that mainly belonged to Duke Ernst Günther of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg , brother-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II . The forest area was cut through by the Berlin - Cottbus - Forst (Lausitz) - Breslau railway line , which at that time was only used by steam locomotives. Fire protection strips were therefore kept free on both sides of the line by the Prussian State Railway .
August 1904 was very hot and dry. At the same time there was a strong westerly wind on August 15, 1904. The railway had stationed workers along the route to prevent a forest fire from breaking out due to flying sparks from the steam locomotives.
course
At around 8 a.m., sparks from the locomotive of the 9303 freight train on the passage from Liegnitz to Sagan (Silesia) did set off a fire. The railway workers could not extinguish it in time. Due to the strong west wind, it spread at high speed to the east through the Prinkenauer forest . The fire jumped up to 200 meters in the treetop area. Fire fighters threatened to be trapped in the fire several times.
Neither the firefighting teams from the surrounding towns nor the 800 men from the ironworks in the area nor the more than 2000 military men from various surrounding garrisons initially succeeded in bringing the fire under control. Only when the wind weakened on the evening of August 16, 1904, the fire could be brought to a standstill. But it was only after rain on August 22, 1904 that the danger was finally averted.
consequences
A forest worker was killed in the fire. The village of Neuvorwerk, located in the middle of the affected forest, burned down completely within half an hour. The villages of Oppach and Rabsen partially burned down. The village of Armadebrunn narrowly escaped this fate: When the fire reached the edge of the village, the wind turned a little and the fire passed north of the village. 18,000 acres (around 46 square kilometers) of forest were destroyed in an area of around 14 by 6 kilometers, a lot of game died, including a pack of deer that had been imported from Russia the year before , and large areas of heathland were destroyed.
The Royal Prussian Railway, as the cause of the fire, had to bear the costs of the damage as well as the extinguishing and rescue work.
literature
- Martin Gollmer: The Primkenau forest fire disaster on August 15, 1904 . Primkenau undated [vmtl .: 1904].
Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 11.2 " N , 15 ° 42 ′ 27.7" E