Hrensko, North Bohemia, July 17 (CTK) – A fire hit a remote forested hilly area in the Czech Switzerland National Park in north Bohemia on Tuesday, and it took firemen about nine hours to put it out as the area is unaccessible to their equipment, their spokesman Milan Rudolf has told CTK.
The fire flared up one kilometre far from the Pravcicka brana sandstone formation, a rare nature sight popular with tourists and one of the national park’s biggest attractions.
The fire was probably set by undisciplined tourists, the national park’s spokesman Tomas Salov said.
With the afflicted site being unaccessible to vehicles, the intervening firemen’s unit approached it on foot, also asking their counterparts in Germany, on the other side of the near border, for help.
The firefighters intervened using simple instruments such as shovels and picks. Water was poured down by a police helicopter.
The fire was uncovered by the national park managers.
“They found a fire pit and sausages on the scene of the fire,” Salov told CTK.
Tourists entered the park zone altough their entry is banned there. “They probably made a fire, which they failed to keep under control, and they fled subsequently,” Salov said.
If the investigation proved that people are behind the fire and if the offender were caught, he would face a fine of dozens of thousands of crowns for setting a forest on fire.
