Wildfire near Assen destroys hundreds of meters of nature reserve

A massive wildfire raged in the Paaskamp nature reserve near Assen during the early hours of Friday morning. Firefighters quickly got the blaze under control, but it destroyed an area of about 100 by 300 meters.

Shortly after midnight, dozens of meters of the nature reserve were ablaze. The fire department was at the scene in large numbers, the local safety office, Veligheidsregio Drenthe, said. The safety office urged locals to keep their doors and windows closed due to the smoke and avoid the area to give the emergency services space to work.

At around 1:30 a.m., the emergency services closed the Duikersloot, Hoofdweg, and Witterweg in Bovensmilde to traffic so that the fire department vehicles could freely use those roads to get to the blaze. “Stay away and give the emergency services space,” the safety office said.

Firefighters had the blaze under control by around 3:00 a.m. and started scaling down the operation. Several fire department vehicles and firefighters will stay at the scene until the fire is completely extinguished.

The cause of the wildfire is not yet known.