BPOLD 11: Federal Police helicopters deployed again to fight forest fires in Saxony and Thuringia

Gohrischheide (Saxony):

During a total of 100 approaches, the crew of the Blumberg Federal Police Aviation Squadron dropped a total of around 180,000 liters of extinguishing water onto the fire.

Gösselsdorf (Thuringia):

With 55 approaches and a total of around 99,000 liters of water, the Federal Police helicopter crew supported the firefighting operations on the Saalfelder Höhe from the air.

Since July 1, 2025, the Federal Police Air Service has been supporting the federal states of Brandenburg (Treuenbrietzen, Jüterbog), Saxony (Gohrischheide), and Thuringia (Saalfelder Höhe) in various forest fires at the request of the respective federal states. The crews have dropped a total of around 667,800 liters of water on the flames during 371 approaches to date.

Background:

The Federal Police Aviation Group of Federal Police Directorate 11 is headquartered in Sankt Augustin near Bonn. It oversees the maintenance operations, the Police Aviation School, and the six Federal Police aviation squadrons in Oberschleißheim near Munich, Fuldatal near Kassel, Gifhorn near Braunschweig, Blumberg near Berlin, Fuhlendorf near Hamburg, and Sankt Augustin.

The flying group is a service provider for the authorities and departments of the Federal Police, other federal and state authorities with security tasks as well as for international authorities and organizations, including the European Border Protection Agency FRONTEX.

It currently operates 94 helicopters of various weight classes, making it the second largest operator of civil aircraft in Germany after Lufthansa and one of the largest police air service organizations in the world.

Operational flight operations are used to support the daily tasks of the Federal Police, in particular border, rail and maritime surveillance.

The regular provision of air transport capacity for Federal Police intervention forces on weekends is one of the main operational priorities of the Federal Police Air Service. These helicopters are also available for all short-notice police situations and for emergency and disaster relief operations.

Please direct any inquiries to:

Federal Police Directorate 11 Christian Marx Telephone: +49 30 417074-9210

Email: [email protected]

Original content from: Federal Police Directorate 11 transmitted by news aktuell

http://ots.de/5ca15c