Emergency services bring the forest fire under control

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• A forest fire in the municipality of Brusio GR was brought under control on Wednesday morning - the burnt area near the district viaduct covers around two square kilometers.
• Six helicopters and an army echinook were deployed; the Rhaetian Railway remains closed and replacement buses are running.
• The fire is said to have gotten out of control during the legal burning of wood waste - the cantonal police are investigating and a fire ban is in place for the whole of the southern Grisons.

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The emergency services brought the forest fire in the municipality of Brusio GR under control on Wednesday morning. Five helicopters from Swisshelicopter and Heli Bernina as well as a Super Puma from the army were deployed to support the fire department. The Rhaetian Railway line is closed until further notice. Rail replacement buses are in operation.

The fire area near the Brusio circular viaduct covers an area of around two square kilometers between Campascio and Viano. A drone equipped with thermal imaging cameras could detect any active sources of fire. This was explained to Keystone-SDA by the mayor of Brusio, Pietro Della Cà, who has been following all the operations without interruption.

Rhaetian Railway services are still suspended and the road to the village of Viano has also been closed since yesterday evening. At least until midday, the village with its 60 inhabitants can only be reached via a forest road. However, an evacuation was not necessary.

The report of the forest fire was received at 3.40 pm on Tuesday, the cantonal police of Graubünden wrote in a statement on Wednesday. Extinguishing work was resumed on Wednesday morning after several fire watches were set overnight.

The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) ordered an extraordinary airspace closure until Thursday evening so as not to hinder the extinguishing work.

According to previous findings, the fire was started legally to burn wood waste. However, due to the dry and windy weather of the last few days, the fire is said to have gotten out of control and caused, among other things, a thick cloud of smoke that covered the entire valley. The Graubünden cantonal police have launched an investigation into the fire.

Alertswiss issued an absolute ban on outdoor fires for all valleys in Italian-speaking Graubünden on Wednesday morning.