The Peel on fire is one of the most popular songs of the Limburg dialect formation Rowwen Hèze, also known in the rest of the Netherlands. The title refers to the way the sky west of the village of America can turn red and yellow at sunset.
It is exactly at this spot in the Mariapeel nature reserve that a real fire is raging this Wednesday. During the day, more and more emergency services with people and equipment gather at the end of the Zwarte Plakweg. Fire extinguishers drive in reverse towards smoke and flames. That way, if necessary, they can get away quickly. Defense helicopters, two Chinooks and a Cougar, fly in and out with fire extinguishing water that they get from a puddle at the brick factory in Liessel a few kilometers away.
Evacuation
Less spectacular: a hand crew from the Overijssel fire brigade is also on site. They can walk into the area, no superfluous luxury in difficult to penetrate nature.
“It is burning in Limburg, but the wind causes the most nuisance for people on the Brabant side,” says fire spokesman Wim Janssen. “A number of homes are now being evacuated near Helenaveen, which are very much in the smoke.” Earlier in the day, residents of a wider area there were already called on to close windows and doors.
It’s burning in Limburg, but because of the wind there is the most nuisance for people on the Brabant side
Wim Janssen fire brigade spokesman
A bird watcher discovered the fire around 6:30 am on Tuesday morning. Then the alarm was quickly raised. The fire in the neighboring nature, the Deurnesche Peel (also a peat area) in the spring of 2020 is still fresh in the memory. In five days, some 710 hectares of valuable nature went up in flames. Then it continued to smolder for two months. It was the largest wildfire in the Netherlands in recent decades.
Stop lines
Despite the effort, the fire spreads throughout the day. In the early morning, an estimated two hectares burn. Just before noon there is talk of twenty hectares, less than two hours later 34 hectares. The fire brigade tries to prevent worse with so-called stop lines. On the field full of people and equipment, managers discuss scenarios for several days.
What must be arranged in terms of repayments and extra provisions? The fire brigade spokesperson: “We are expected to be busy for a while. Even if it is only with extinguishing.”
At a police cordon in Helenaveen, the mood of a man on a scooter does not suffer from the fire. “I want to visit my daughter. And I have my own water with me,” he says as he lifts a bottle from his basket.
Windows and doors
The cycling Bert Zijpveld is not too worried for the time being. “I hear people complain that the response was not fast enough. But I don’t believe that. I heard the first fire engine very early this morning.” Zijpveld, who as a young man worked in peat extraction in the peat, has already closed all windows and doors at home as a precaution. “But it is not as bad as in 2020. Then it was blue with smoke in Helenaveen. After that, it took months of airing to get rid of the burning smell.”
After the fire in the spring of 2020, a fire management plan was drawn up for the Deurnesche Peel that, among other things, provides for compartmentalization of the area, more and stronger paths and roads and the removal of part of the most combustible vegetation. There is no such plan for the Mariapeel yet.
Read alsoLargest wildfire ever shook nature managers awake
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