The fire was aided by a long period of drought with hot summer weather and dried-out coniferous forests.

Other authorities such as the police, Bundesgrenzschutz, customs, Technisches Hilfswerk and Forestry Commission as well as aid organisations like the German Red Cross, St. John's Ambulance, Malteser Hilfsdienst and Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund were engaged in fighting the forest fires in Lower Saxony.

But only when around 11,000 Bundeswehr soldiers with cross-country capable vehicles and heavy clearance equipment (including armoured recovery tanks with dozer blades) were deployed could the fire be contained by the creation of firebreaks.

Once the diesel locomotive had delivered two full tank wagons, it would then return to Uelzen with the empty ones in order to refill them at the water crane there.

For future incidents the Deutsche Bundesbahn has stationed four water wagons along the railway line from Hanover to Celle.

The fire destroyed 7,418 hectares (18,330 acres) of forest and caused damage assessed at more than 18 million euros.

Immediately after the fire the chief executive (Oberkreisdirektor) responsible for the district of Celle, who was not felt to have handled the problem well, was replaced.

At the site where five firemen died a memorial was erected; it lies in a wooded are east of Meinersen by the B 188 federal road and is signed.

In particularly endangered areas, special ponds were dug in order to provide rapid and efficient water collection by fire engines.

In reforesting the areas destroyed by storm and forest fire, it was initially thought that pine monocultures should be abandoned and more deciduous trees (oaks and beech) should be planted.