Fire services in Norway battling forest fires over the weekend in various parts of the country have now gotten the fires under control.

Blazes broke out in a number of parts of the country during the weekend, including in the Rogaland, Akershus and Sogn og Fjordane counties.

Some of the fires took longer than others to extinguish, with a particularly serious fire at Lommedalen in Akershus taking around seven hours, Aftenposten reports.

The fires come after an extended period of dry weather in the Scandinavian country.

“It is extremely dry in the countryside and the forest fire [risk] index is sky-high, so this is critical. In this case the alarm was fortunately raised in good time so we have a good chance of controlling the fire,” Mathias Drange, the head of the firefighting response unit, told NRK on Sunday evening.

A helicopter was used to help put out the flames in Lommedalen, with the fire reported as being mostly out by 9pm Sunday.


Photo: Fredrik Hagen / NTB scanpix

Police tweeted Sunday that the site of a bonfire and burned coffee pot had been found in the area and could be the origin of the fire, but later corrected this, writing that they did not know how or where the flames had started.

Fire service chief Anders Martinsen declined to comment on the cause of the Lommedalen fire, according to the Aftenposten report.

A separate forest fire in Ombo in Rogaland county has been reported to have ‘flared up’ again after previously having been reported to be under control.

1,000 acres are currently affected by the fire in the southwestern region, according to a report by VG.

Three helicopters and thirty extra men were deployed in the effort to put out the Ombo fire on Monday, according to the report.

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute’s website showed on Sunday a continued “very high” risk of forest fire in eastern, western and southern regions during the coming days.

Barbecues and other open fires in forest areas and in fields are forbidden while the high risk assessment is in place.

article sourced from thelocal.no

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