Firefighters to battle for days at wildfire in northern Germany

Firefighters in Germany are set to battle flames for several days in the northern Harz district, although a fire there is no longer spreading, a district fire chief said on Saturday.

"We succeeded in securing the fire with a lot of manpower and technology," said Harz district fire chief Kai-Uwe Lohse. The flames are burning along a length of 1,000 metres at Königsberg, a sub peak of the Brocken mountain, the highest in the area.

Firefighters in planes fought the flames until nightfall, according to district officials.

Long plumes of smoke were earlier visible drifting over the mountain slope as fire brigades worked non-stop in the summer heat and helicopters and fire-fighting planes flew overhead.

A a fire retardant chemical was added to the water to make their efforts more effective, in a first for Germany as a nation, Lohse said.

Nevertheless, the fire brigade is preparing to deploy for several days, he said.

"We are reckoning with several days but hope that the large-scale weather change on Monday will bring an end to it," Lohse said.

The fire brigade fears that embers in the ground could ignite new fires and wind could also fan the flames.

Emergency workers are cutting protective strips into the ground and creating pathways to stop the fire from spreading and give water transport vehicles access.

The risk of forest fires is currently very high in large parts of Saxony-Anhalt as warm and dry weather is expected through Sunday, after which rain is forecast, according to the German Weather Service.