Several communities evacuated as forest fire spreads in Swiss canton of Valais

By Timo Kirez

GENEVA (AA) - Several communities have been evacuated as a forest fire spread in the Swiss canton of Valais, local media reported on Tuesday.

Among the people evacuated included communities of Ried-Morel, Maiensass Oberried, and hamlets of Flesche and Obere-Eichen, according to the public broadcaster SRF.

Air Zermatt, which conducts firefighting and rescue flights in the region, said the forest fire spread “explosively” Tuesday night.

The steep terrain in the forest fire area in the Upper Valais, the dryness and persistent winds are accelerating the rapid spread of the fire, according to Marco Conedera, an expert at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL.

"It's like being in a chimney," Conedera told SRF.

The dryness prevailing in the Upper Valais combined with the wind is a "toxic cocktail" to increase the risk of forest fires, he added. The wind exacerbates the dryness by causing moisture in the vegetation to evaporate.

In such conditions, small fires would be enough and a situation could quickly get out of control, Conedera said. The stronger the wind, combined with the fire material, the more oxygen there is and the bigger the flames become, he said.

"We were expecting a bit of an event like this," he added. So far, he said, the summer has been very dry.

For now, nothing was known about the cause of the fire. However, WSL estimates that about 90% of fires in Switzerland are caused directly or indirectly by humans.

The forest fire in Valais covers an area of about 100 hectares (247 acres). This corresponds to an area of about 140 football fields. The emergency services expect the fire to take days or even weeks to extinguish.