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Large vegetation fire in Celle: Fire brigade fights the flames!
On July 4, 2025, the Celle fire department fought a vegetation fire on 60,000 m² in the Altenceller field with over 60 emergency services.
Large vegetation fire in Celle: Fire brigade fights the flames!
On Friday afternoon, July 4th, 2025, the Celle fire department was called to a major vegetation fire in Altenceller Feld. Oldenburger Online Zeitung reports that the fire is spreading rapidly over an area of around 60,000 to 80,000 square meters. Young trees and bushes were particularly affected, which made extinguishing work even more difficult.
The alerted emergency services were on site at around 3:22 p.m. and were quickly forced to increase the alert level. Under the direction of the operations manager, several additional forces were mobilized, including the city fire department's South Water Transport Platoon. A total of around 60 firefighters were on duty, intensively working on the fire site from three sides with a total of ten D-pipes. The B3 between Altencelle and Westercelle had to be completely closed during the measures to ensure the safety of emergency services and passers-by.
Efficient firefighting
The coordinated firefighting was expressly praised by city fire chief Uwe Wiechmann. He highlights the excellent organization and use of the new water transport trains, which have proven extremely helpful in this situation. The extinguishing work lasted until around 5:30 p.m. and despite the successful measures, the cause of the fire remains unknown.
But it's not just in Celle that there are challenges when it comes to fires. Celle fire brigade points out that the number of vegetation fires in Germany is constantly increasing. In 2023, the area of forest burned was over 40% above the average since 1991. This development not only poses risks for the environment, but also for the emergency services, who face numerous dangers during such operations.
Risks for emergency services
A study by DGUV shows that climate change and increasingly extreme weather events, such as heat waves, are drastically increasing the risk of vegetation fires. In recent years, the number of forest fires in Germany has exceeded 1,000 several times. As a result of this increase, firefighters must expect increased exposure to potentially carcinogenic substances, particularly during such challenging operations.
To counteract this risk, the right protective equipment is essential. The use of particle filtering masks of the FFP2 and FFP3 categories is recommended to minimize health risks. In addition, studies are ongoing to better understand the exposure of emergency responders to vegetation fires and to be able to develop suitable preventive measures.
The operation in Celle is an impressive example of how important quick reactions and well-trained emergency services are in such dangerous situations. The Celle fire department has once again shown that it has a good knack for dealing with such dramatic events.