ZOSSEN, Germany (CN) — Planes and helicopters dumping water on blazing wildfires, firefighters toiling on the ground for weeks to contain their spread — these are scenes many Germans associate with North America or southern Europe. But increasingly, they're also becoming familiar scenes at home due to climate change.
And while the battle against wildfires is still largely played out by firefighters on the ground, German officials are hopeful that they can gain the upper hand far from the flames themselves.
It's a shift that Raimund Engel, the eastern German state of Brandenburg's wildfire mitigation officer, has seen firsthand in his 15 years on the job.
"I've certainly noticed a difference. We can't influence the number of wildfires. But when looking at the long-term statistics, we can at least see that since we've set up our early detection system, we've managed to catch many fires before they have a chance to get big," he told Courthouse News.
A long row of PC monitors adorn a conference table spanning an entire room. The only source of light is the muted brightness spilling in from an overcast day through the windows and the cool glow of computer screens.
Though this looks like it could be a coding room at a tech startup, it's actually part of the state forestry facilities in Brandenburg, 30 miles outside of Berlin. It's also home to the future of forest firefighting.
Here, staff spend shifts closely monitoring an automated early wildfire detection system capable of picking out a 300-square-foot billow of smoke from 12 miles away.
"The human eye just can't do that. Even with binoculars, it's not happening," Engel told Courthouse News.
That's an important capability, given forest-fire surveillance was long dependent on people tucked away in towers deep in the woods, hoping to catch an early glimpse of smoke in the distance through their binoculars.
Engel recounted a tradition of forest-fire prevention in the region that dates back over a century to an early system of towers in Prussia. These days it all happens in two offices. The expanded network of towers erected in East Germany during the Cold War now sits empty, many of them topped by the sensors.
"We don't have anyone on the towers. We've switched entirely to the sensors. Those days are over, though I think a couple of those working here today used to work in the towers," said Engel.
Spotting wildfires has a long tradition in the region for a reason. Brandenburg has seen more woodland engulfed by wildfire in the last three years than any other German state.
According to Engel, a combination of dry air, relatively high wind and sandy soil that's incapable of holding moisture make the 1.1 million hectares of forest, or 37% of the state's land, particularly fire prone.
This year has been fairly cool and wet, and only 81 wildfires have been recorded by mid-June. By this time in 2022, a particularly dry year that saw more than 3,000 hectares burned throughout the country — nearly half of which was in Brandenburg — the eastern state encircling Berlin had suffered 196.
Regardless of the weather, Brandenburg is well prepared. One hundred and five automated 'Firewatch' sensors take continuous 360-degree footage of the state's forests, searching for smoke. They're equipped with AI that helps distinguish between smoke, clouds and dust.
Continuous footage is sent to the wildfire headquarters in Zossen and Eberswalde, where teams of up to six sift through footage, double-checking suspected smoke and prepared to relay information to firefighters.
While fighting forest fires in Brandenburg is solely the duty of the state's fire departments, surveillance provided under the watchful robotic eye of Engel and his staff provides critical support. According to Engel, it's not just about recognizing fires before they're too large to control; the bird's-eye view is an important tool in actually putting them out.
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