An international expert specializing in wildfire management has sharply criticized the firefighting strategy employed during the fires in the Müritz National Park. Lindon Pronto, co-founder of the Waldbrand-Klima-Resilienz initiative, described the operational deployment as “professionally unsubstantiated,” arguing that the local authorities in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ignored proven, viable alternatives.
The German-American consultant stated that using large-scale sprinklers is ineffective in combating the fire. He deemed it absurd to systematically irrigate vast forest areas, especially during the summer when heat, high winds, and water scarcity are prevalent. Pronto asserted that international practices do not involve such methods, adding that water drops from helicopters are also largely pointless because the water evaporates before reaching the ground from the required safety altitude of 1,000 meters.
While he conceded that purely water-based tactics might slow a fire, Pronto emphasized that they cannot reliably stop or extinguish it. According to the expert, Brandenburg had offered to deploy an MV-4 type remote-controlled defuser, a machine suitable for fighting fires in munitions-affected areas. However, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern rejected this option. “The MV-4 was the secret weapon that could have made the difference,” Pronto said, lamenting that the equipment remains unused in a garage in Brandenburg.
The expert noted that the fire in the national park exposed significant professional and operational gaps, despite Mecklenburg-Vorpommern having invested over 150 million euros in wildfire prevention, according to the state government. Pronto, who fought major blazes in California as a firefighter between 2007 and 2014, called for the creation of an independent national competence center for vegetation fire management. His conclusion was clear: betting solely on a shift in the weather is not a sustainable strategy.
