"The entire fire area is currently under control, though inside that area there are still places that are burning and require constant firefighter intervention. But the geographical area is contained", Kierwiński told a press conference in Józefów, adding that the risk to residential buildings had "significantly decreased". He cautioned the situation could still be dynamic.
Over two days of aerial operations, crews carried out roughly 500 water drops, delivering more than 600 tons of water to the burn zone.
National Fire Service Chief Wojciech Kruczek said 600 personnel, including 440 firefighters from across Poland, worked through the night. Thursday morning's aerial assets included two Black Hawk helicopters, seven State Forests helicopters and four Dromader aircraft.
The burned area is preliminarily estimated at around 300 hectares, with operational activity covering approximately 1,000 hectares. Thermal cameras are being used to map hotspots, which Kruczek described as densely scattered across the entire scorched zone, with water drops targeted at the highest-temperature points to prevent wind-carried embers from reigniting.
Climate Minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska said environmental losses would be formally assessed after the operation concludes, but confirmed that a forest earmarked to become a nature reserve had been destroyed.
"It was a valuable State Forests resource — unfortunately this tragic event caused us to lose part of it", she said.
(jh)
Source: PAP