Wildfire forces evacuation of 1,800 in German village as flames near homes and munitions depot
German authorities ordered the immediate evacuation of the village of Gey in the Hürtgenwald municipality of North Rhine-Westphalia on Friday as a wildfire advanced to within 200 meters of homes, according to the Kreis Düren district spokesperson cited by WDR . The fire, which began Thursday afternoon, has scorched approximately 25 hectares of forest, an area equivalent to 35 soccer fields, and prompted the municipality to declare a “major damage situation.”
All 1,800 residents of Gey had left their homes by Friday morning, with officials urging them to take only essential documents, medications, and personal items. The crisis response team was activated as the blaze spread toward the village and a former World War II munitions depot in Düren, where unexploded ordnance has complicated firefighting efforts. Explosions were reported overnight, and two armored vehicles from the Bundeswehr were deployed to clear paths for emergency crews .
Ralf Nolten, the district administrator of Kreis Düren, told the German Press Agency that the next few hours were critical. “If we have extinguished the fire in Gey, it will depend on the next hours whether we can identify and extinguish the main hotspots,” he said . Rising temperatures and potential thermals could reignite flames by afternoon, he added. Around 200 emergency responders, including five helicopters from multiple German states and two military NH-90 transport helicopters equipped with 2,000-liter water buckets, were battling the blaze .
The nearby village of Großhau was also at risk, though no evacuation order had been issued there as of Friday morning. The fire’s rapid advance followed a shift in wind direction overnight, which pushed the flames closer to populated areas. The Nina warning app issued the highest alert level, “Extreme Danger,” for the region .
Mayor Stephan Cranen of Hürtgenwald told WDR that three separate fires had broken out on Thursday, with two contained and one expanding overnight toward Gey and the munitions depot . The total burned area in the district was later estimated at 300 hectares, according to Nolten .
Follow us for live European news
- 6
- 3
- 2
- 2
- 2
- 1
- 1
- 1
2 further sources not geolocated






![[lalibre] 1.800 personnes évacués près de la frontière belge à la suite dun incendie, le feu à 400 mètres des habitations : "catastrophe majeure" #Europe](https://files.mastodon.social/cache/preview_cards/images/203/561/915/original/28f0c849afcb7018.jpg)