Jetten thanks firefighters on visit to site of Limburg wildfire

Prime minister Rob Jetten has visited the site of a wildfire that has been raging in Limburg for four days, destroying around a square kilometre of woodland.

Jetten thanked emergency workers for their efforts to contain the blaze in the Boshuizerbergen, in a social media video showing “the huge damage to nature and to the animals and people who have had to be evacuated”.

An emergency order banning people from the area remains in force, but limited train services resumed between Venray and Boxmeer on Thursday morning. Arriva had to lay on buses for commuters after the line through the fire zone was closed.

Firefighters said on Wednesday they had brought the blaze under control, only for it to flare up again twice during the night.

Chinook helicopters dropped 900,000 litres of water on the fire in the first two days, drawing it from the Maas in giant buckets containing 7,600 litres.

Efforts to contain the fire have been complicated by the fact that the area contains unexploded Second World War munitions, which bomb disposal specialists have had to make safe.

“In the next few days the fire service and [nature management service] Limburgs Landschap will focus on completely putting out the last sources of the fire. After that we can make a plan to restore this area,” Jetten said.

“I want to thank in particular everyone who has worked so hard in the last few days to deal with this crisis.”