Forestry minister manages to start forest fire, may need to find another job

You'd think being a forestry minister would give you a fairly good grounding in safe practices around the disposal of bonfire waste... but apparently not.

After being called out to a blaze in woodland in Bavaria, firemen were shocked to find that state forestry and agriculture minister Helmut Brunner was the unwitting culprit.

The ministry confirmed that Brunner had tried to tip the remains of a bonfire from his garden into a local forest thinking that the embers were already extinguished. But it turns out he was wrong.

I totally underestimated it, it's really embarrassing. You can't be careful enough.

• Helmut Brunner speaking to German radio

According to the Local, Brunner has spent a large part of the summer warning local residents about the hazards of forest fire after a particularly dry few months.

The Telegraph reports that it took 22 firemen and 4,000 litres of water to quell the blaze.

"I'm going to be even more careful in future," Brunner told Passauer Neue Presse.

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