More fires break out at Dutch military training grounds

Several more fires have broken out at Dutch military training grounds, the biggest of which is raging near the Oirschotse Heide army camp in Noord Brabant.

Military police told local broadcaster Omroep Brabant that the blaze started during military exercises but whether or not the exercises themselves were responsible for the blaze still has to be established. The same ground has seen a series of smaller fires over the past two weeks.

Officials said early on Thursday afternoon that a large area was alight and the fire was continuing to spread. At least 12 fire engines had been drafted in to try to get the blaze under control.

Meanwhile, at the military range near ‘t Harde in Gelderland, fire officers are still working to dampen down the blaze which started on Wednesday and officials say it will be several days before the fire can definitively be said to be out.

That fire has destroyed some 500 hectares of wood and heathland and killed thousands of small mammals, amphibians and birds, many of which were forced to abandon nests to escape the blaze.

There was also a fire at another military training ground near Assen on Wednesday and on Thursday one at the Weerter en Budelerbergen camp in Limburg. There too the sources of the fire have not yet been established. The Budel fire has led to the closure of the Kempen airfield.

A second fire in Limburg, in the Heldense Bossen which started on Wednesday night has since destroyed 30,000 square metres of woodland.

In the dunes between Noordwijk and De Zilk in Zuid-Holland another, smaller fire has also been raging and is now heading towards the sea.

The Netherlands is on high alert for wildfires following the continuing drought. However, despite the string of fires at army training grounds, a spokesman for the armed forces told news website Nu.nl that training exercises would continue.