A forest fire in Germany’s north-east has been declared a “major incident” after it spread to cover an area of around 800 hectares, local authorities said Monday evening. The fire in the Elbe-Elster district of Brandenburg, south of Berlin, had spread quickly from an initial 10 hectares in the afternoon. “This was mainly due to heavy gusts of wind, which made the firefighters’ work putting out the flames considerably more difficult and in parts even impossible,” the local council said in a statement. About 200 residents from the village of Rehfeld were evacuated on Monday evening, with several…