BERLIN, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The state of emergency concerning the swampland fires in the German state of Lower Saxony has been revoked on Thursday.
"After intensive professional consultations with the responsible authorities of the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) and the ministry of the interior of Lower Saxony, I decided to cancel the state of emergency," announced Reinhard Winter, district administrator of the most-heavily affected Emsland district in Lower Saxony.
According to Winter, the emergency forces progressively contained the fire and it no longer threatened to spread to neighboring communities. However, the fire was not yet extinguished.
The state of emergency had been declared last Friday after the German weather service (DWD) recorded gusts with strengths of up to 85 km per hour, further complicating the efforts of firefighters who are still battling the flames in a restricted military area near the town of Meppen. An evacuation of two small villages near the swamp fires with about 1,000 inhabitants could not be ruled out last week.
According to an employee of the ministry of the interior of Lower Saxony in the German city of Hanover, all measurements in the area near the fire showed no exceeding of limiting values that would indicate an acute health hazard so far.
The state prosecution office in the German city of Osnabrueck announced on Sept. 20 that it will launch a formal investigation into the matter. "Fire-related offenses, especially arson and potentially also environmental offenses come into question when protected areas such as nature reserves are affected," Alexander Retemeyer, a spokesperson for the Osnabrueck State Prosecution Office, told press on Thursday last week.
The fire first broke out following rocket testing activities by the Bundeswehr and has since spread to an area equivalent to more than 1,000 football pitches. The trail of smoke from the swamp fire was temporarily extended up to 100 km over the northwest of Germany as far as the German city of Bremen.
The Bundeswehr has used the restricted area near the town of Meppen for artillery testing purposes almost continuously since 1876. As a consequence, firefighters cannot access all parts of the government-owned site due to risks stemming from suspected remnants of munitions which could still be live.
