The incident occurred on July 5. As we read on the Facebook profile of volunteer firefighters from Brzeźnik (Bolesławiec municipality):
[...] we were dispatched to a forest-floor fire in Dobra. Units from PSP Bolesławiec, OSP Osiecznica, OSP Przejęsław and OSP Brzeźnik participated in the operation, as did a firefighting vehicle from the Bolesławiec Forest District.
Approximately 20 ares of forest floor burned. The operation lasted about 3 hours.
Warning! It is very dry and hot again. Firefighters appeal: when we are out walking, for example in a forest, let us be careful not to accidentally start a fire.
Let us recall. Last year, nearly 126,000 fires occurred in Poland, of which as many as 38,000 were grass fires in meadows and agricultural wasteland, mostly caused by grass burning.
That is why the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, together with the State Fire Service, launched the “Stop grass fires” campaign. The information campaign aims to raise awareness of how harmful grass burning is to the environment; it causes hundreds of thousands of fires in which people lose everything they have worked for, and may even die.
This year, the State Fire Service has already recorded 38,634 grass fires, in which two people died and 101 were injured. Last year, fires of this type were also the direct cause of two deaths—in 2011, there were as many as sixteen victims. Fires in wasteland, due to their nature and usually large size, require a significant number of firefighting personnel and resources. Every intervention entails considerable financial expenditure. Losses caused by grass fires in 2017 were estimated at more than PLN 10 million.
Every year, firefighters combat the problem of grass burning. Most incidents of this type occur in March and April. In 2017 alone, 266,000 firefighters were dispatched to extinguish grass fires. The “Stop grass fires” information campaign aims to raise public awareness of the negative consequences of grass burning. On the specially prepared website www.stoppozaromtraw.pl, you can find, among other things, statistics on the harmful effects of grass burning, as well as the negative consequences of such incidents.
It should be remembered that after winter, grass is dry and burns very quickly. According to fire service information, a fire can spread at more than 20 km/h (for comparison, fast running is nearly 19 km/h, while fast cycling is about 30 km/h). Wind also helps fire spread. It is impossible to control the blaze and the extent and direction of grass burning on your own—fires very often spread to nearby forests and buildings at an extremely rapid pace. People are responsible for more than 94% of the causes of this type of fire.