Category Archives: Forest Fires

Bouchaib Yacine/SDIS66 via AP

France’s government sounded the alarm Monday about the growing risk of forest fires because of climate change as hundreds of firefighters in the country’s parched south wrestled with their biggest woodland-destroying blaze so far this year. The fire erupted Sunday and burned more than 1,000 hectares of land along the Mediterranean coast, spreading across the border into northeastern Spain. On a visit Monday to the zone, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said: “The fire season is starting early because of climate warming.” …Scientists say they’ll likely get worse as climate change intensifies and the Mediterranean region is warming faster than the global average. …Droughts that hit France last year have been compounded by shortages of rain this past winter, leaving already tinder-dry woodlands at even greater risk.

SEOUL – More than 500 people evacuated from their homes in South Korea’s eastern coastal city of Gangneung as strong winds fanned a wildfire on Tuesday, officials said, but fears of a further spread eased as rain helped firefighters battle the blaze. The fire, which started at around 8:30 a.m. local time in Gangneung, was mostly extinguished as of 4:30 p.m., after consuming 170 hectares (420 acres) of land and prompting the evacuation of some 550 residents in the city of more than 200,000 people, the Korea Forest Service said. The fire injured three people, including two firefighters, and destroyed dozens of buildings, the national forestry agency said. A body was found later in the afternoon in a burnt house in the affected area, Yonhap news agency reported, citing Gangneung Police Station. …Photos and footage circulating on social media showed fires razing forests and fields, and buildings engulfed by smoke.

Hundreds of people were evacuated as a major forest fire raged in Spain’s eastern Castellon region on Friday, marking an early start to the nation’s fire season amid bone dry conditions. Ximo Puig, the president of the Valencia region that incorporates Castellon, told reporters the fire had engulfed around 1,000 hectares of land since it broke out Thursday, and was “very early in the spring, very voracious from the beginning.” Emergency services in the region said 600 people in eight towns had been evacuated, including a home for older people in Montan. Puig added that the effects of climate change “are undeniable, so the perspective of firefighting must be considered on an annual basis.” …The state weather agency, AEMET, tweeted that “unfavorable weather conditions, especially considering the early date of the year, have favored the (fire’s) rapid spread.” 

CORRIENTES, Argentina — Fires in heat wave- and drought-stricken Argentina have devoured some 6,000 hectares of forests in the northern Corrientes province in just days, officials reported Tuesday. Three fires continued to threaten while two others were burning but under control, according to the emergency command center of Corrientes. No injuries have been reported and the fires have not spread to populated areas, with rains expected Tuesday. Since the start of the year, with the South American country facing heat wave after heat wave, fires have destroyed more than 100,000 hectares in Corrientes, according to the INTA agricultural technology institute. Last month, Argentina issued health warnings in several provinces under the worst heat wave in decades, with temperatures close to 40 Celsius. …In 2022, forest fires in Corrientes burnt more than a million hectares, according to official figures.

HAVANA – Forest fires raged on in Cuba’s eastern region on Monday, inching toward more populated ground more than a week after sparking near a national park. More than 2,000 hectares of forest, including plantations and coffee crops, have been devoured by the flames, authorities said, as firefighters, park employees and soldiers battled the blaze. The fires have moved away from the Mensura-Piloto National Park and toward the province of Santiago de Cuba, home of the populous city of the same name, according to officials. The fires are actively spreading through “a wide area, not just one focal point,” said local Communist Party leader Ernesto Santiesteban on state television. Officials have struggled to put out the fires since they began on Feb. 18. Obstacles include “adverse conditions” and difficult terrain, Santiesteban said.

HAVANA – A major wildfire in eastern Cuba was spreading closer to a national park on Monday, threatening hundreds of residents in its path, Cuban state television said Monday. Firefighters were attempting to control the blaze that started this weekend in the mountainous Pinares de Mayari region in Cuba’s Holguin province, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the capital Havana, with strong winds and dry conditions fueling its rapid spread. The flames have already consumed more than 150 hectares (371 acres) of land and prompted the evacuation of about 600 residents from the small towns of Vivero 2, Pueblo Nuevo and La Mensura. Local media reported on Monday that the fire was approaching the Mensura-Piloto National Park, which occupies an area of around 8,480 hectares (20,955 acres). Television footage showed large plumes of smoke and fire rising from the forest.

CHILLAN, Chile – Forest fires across south-central Chile that have left 24 people dead and swallowed up hundreds of houses spread into new areas on Wednesday after raging overnight, burning up the habitats of vulnerable woodland animals. “We call on everyone who can to take care of the forests which are currently on fire, and also of our animals, specimens of vital importance,” said Valentina Aravena, the manager at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Chillan. …the area affected by the fires had now spread to over 300,000 hectares. …In the rehabilitation center in Chillan, the capital of the Ñuble region, veterinarians treated burns on animals native to the woodlands, such as monito del monte, a small nocturnal marsupial, and pudus, the world’s smallest deer. …Chilean pulp and wood panel manufacturer Arauco, the forestry arm of Empresas Copec, said 40,000 hectares of its plantations could be potentially affected, though the possible extent remained unclear.

SANTIAGO – Chilean firefighters were battling to hold back forest fires on Monday as authorities said hot and dry weather would continue this week, potentially exacerbating what are already the deadliest blazes in the country’s recent history. The fires, which have consumed 270,000 hectares (667,000 acres) of land, have killed 26 people so far in south-central Chile, and already made 2023 the second worst year in terms of hectares burned after the so-called “fire storm” that hit the country in 2017. The state National Forestry Corporation reported that as of Monday morning there were 275 active fires, of which 69 were currently in combat. …Chile is in the grip of an over decade-long period of dry weather, which the World Meteorological Organization called a “mega drought” last year, adding it was the longest in a thousand years and marked a major water crisis.

Minister for internal administration, José Luís Carneiro, has announced that Portugal will be sending a team of 140 firefighters to help combat deadly forest fires sweeping through central Chile. Already 24 people are known to have died, with 1,182 so far registered as injured. Portugal’s ‘firefighting relationship with Chile’ goes back a long way. The two countries have helped each other in the past, with Chilean sappers actually dying here, fighting fires in central Portugal in 2006 – thus Portugal has traditionally felt a ‘debt of gratitude’. Said Mr Carneiro today: “We have already communicated to the European Civil Protection Mechanism our availability of resources”. 140 people have been identified for the mission “from various forces and services, namely the Special Civil Protection Force of the National Republican Guard, the Special Protection and Rescue Unit, Forest Guards of the National Institute of Medical Emergency and the Portuguese Fire Brigade.”

SANTIAGO – Dozens of wildfires blazing through Chile caused the government to extend an emergency order to another region on Saturday, as a scorching summer heat wave complicates efforts to control fires that have claimed at least 23 lives so far. More than 1,100 people have sought refuge in shelters while at least 979 people have been reported injured by the raging fires, according to an official briefing later on Saturday. The latest emergency order covers the southern region of Araucania, next to the previously declared Biobio and Nuble regions, located near the middle of the South American country’s long Pacific coastline. “Weather conditions have made it very difficult to put out (the fires) that are spreading and the emergency is getting worse,” Interior Minister Carolina Toha told reporters at a news conference in the capital Santiago. …Another 16 fires sparked on Saturday, as local temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere summer exceeded 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius).

Havana: Fire crews continued to battle a large-scale wildfire in Cuba’s eastern province of Holguin, local media has reported. The blaze raged across the mountainous region of El Prado on Saturday, some 800 km east of the capital Havana, burning over 1,000 hectares of forest, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a report by Granma daily newspaper. No casualties or injuries have been reported, yet an emergency evacuation plan is underway in nearby mountainous rural communities. The fire comes as a severe and prolonged drought continues to affect eastern Cuba.

Firefighters and emergency crews are continuing to battle multiple bushfires ignited by more than 300,000 lightning strikes across southern Western Australia. An emergency warning remains in place for people north of Preston National Park, in WA’s South West. The emergency warning also applies to people in parts of Glen Mervyn, Mumballup, Noggerup, and Yabberup. A watch and act warning is in place for Noggerup, Mumballup, and other areas nearby. The nearby blaze in parts of Beelerup, Brookhampton, and Charley Creek, on the outskirts of Donnybrook, was downgraded to a watch and act early on Wednesday. A fire in Wellington National Park, to the north of the Donnybrook and Noggerup fires, has been downgraded.

SANTIANGO — Chile is battling to control the spread of several wildfires that have already destroyed more than 4,000 hectares of woodlands and are putting local communities at risk. Central regions including the Santiago metropolitan area, Valparaiso, O’Higgins and Maule are on red alert, with nine active fires currently being fought, data from the National Forestry Corporation showed on Monday. Members of the federal government met emergency agencies overnight to discuss firefighters’ progress and the threat of new outbreaks. “We have put in place all resources to fight the forest fires that are impacting the central areas of Chile,” President Gabriel Boric said. Evacuations were ordered in Melipilla, some 60 kilometers southwest of the capital, where school classes were suspended Monday. …This season has registered 44 wildfire outbreaks throughout the country.