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Swiss army steps up help to contain forest fires

Forest ablaze in Switzerland
Firefighters estimate it will take several weeks to completely put out the flames in canton Valais. © Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

Forest fires in southwest Switzerland are still not under control, as the army deployed additional help to extinguish the flames.

Fifty evacuated people had still not been able to return to their homes on Wednesday afternoon. The situation was reported “stable”, but with winds lifting, experts feared embers could reignite. Authorities in the southwestern canton of Valais on Wednesday announced a ban on open air fires from Thursday.

A second Super Puma helicopter of the Swiss army, equipped with infrared cameras to detect heat zones  joined the firefighting efforts on Wednesday, with ground forces also deployed to the area around Bitsch and Riederalp, canton Valais.

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They  join around 100 firefighters and five other helicopters battling to control around 300 fires affecting some 100 hectares of forest.

“We would need to dump a reservoir of water to extinguish all parts of the burning forest at once,” said Mario Schaller, who is leading operations for the firefighting service.

It is estimated to take several weeks before all the flames are completely extinguished but favourable winds overnight prevented the blaze from spreading.

The cause of the forest fire and the exact point that it started have yet to be determined.

With devastating forest fires affecting many parts of Europe and further afield in the world, the Valais blaze is the first major forest fire in Switzerland this year.

Fires burned a record 700,000 hectares of forest in the European Union amid a heatwave last year.

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