In the canton of Aargau, a ban on fires in and near forests has been in force since Friday - as in many other cantons. Despite this, three mountain bikers came across warm ashes at the Burgholz viewpoint on the Lägerngrat on Sunday afternoon. "We thought to ourselves that someone had made a fire here despite the ban and hadn't even put it out properly. Then one of us emptied some water from his bidon over it. We thought that was the end of it," says Carlo Sozzi, one of the three bikers.

But that was by no means the end of it. Because when they passed the castle wood again a day later, the charred area was twice as large as the day before. "It was still smouldering under the ashes and in the grass roots in the direction of the wind," says Sozzi. The three of them rode down to Wettingen and informed the fire department. They wanted to take a look at the smouldering fire and determine its extent with a thermal imaging camera. "They laughed a little at how much water we packed in canisters and waterproof bags and hauled up." At the top, it turned out that the 100 liters that the bikers and firefighters had with them were no exaggeration. It was up to 400 degrees under the ashes and the embers had spread under the floor. The fact that nothing more had happened was due to the fact that the ground at the site is mostly rocky and the fire did not find much food. However, Oliver Gross, commander of the Wettingen fire department, says: "The danger was great. It is very dry, we have danger level 4 out of 5 in the canton of Aargau. In addition, there was a strong breeze on the ridge. It would probably have been a matter of time before the smouldering fire led to a forest fire."

LägereBräu, the local brewery that cherishes the viewpoint as its founding location, was particularly grateful. "LägereBräu would like to thank the three bikers and the Wettingen fire department who saved our local mountain yesterday!" the brewery posted, offering the firefighters and bikers enough beer to quench their thirst after the fire.

Advice article: www.bussgeld-info.de/waldbrandgefahr