Firefighters battle forest fire in north Bohemia

Five units of firefighters were called to battle a forest fire near Máchovo jezero in north Bohemia on Saturday evening. The fire covered an area spanning 4.5 hectares, and due to difficult conditions, the emergency services employed special helicopters to extinguish the blaze. A spokesperson for the regional fire brigade said that it was too early to calculate the cost of the damage caused, and said that the causes of the fire would be investigated. According to firefighters, the lack of rain in the region for several weeks meant that the forest floor was bone dry, and created the ideal conditions for the fire to spread.