Category Archives: Forest Fires

Vast swathes of fire-ravaged pine forest must be replanted and managed differently to avoid future blazes fuelled by global heating, French experts have said, as wildfires – several caused by arson – continued to burn across France and Spain. Officials in the south-west Gironde département said on Monday that two huge fires … were both under control, although still burning. …As thoughts turned to replanting, French forestry experts say that not only the choice of species but also much tougher forest management rules would be critical in combating future wildfires amid the growing climate crisis. …France’s civil protection service said a top priority must be easy access for firefighters. …Other measures include public information campaigns, starting as early as primary school, on the significantly increased risks of forest fires, with statistics showing that about 90% are originated – either accidentally or deliberately – by humans.

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s fire service was fighting four major fires across the country Saturday, including one where they had to evacuate over 450 people at an island holiday resort.  A fire that broke at Saturday morning on the island of Lesbos prompted authorities to call for the evacuation of the Vatera resort on the island’s southern side. The fire came very close to the resort and at least one house was engulfed by the flames.  …Greece’s biggest fire Saturday was burning in the northeast near the border with Τurkey for the third day running, inside a national forest that is the home to rare species, especially vultures. The Dadia national forest is mostly made up of highly flammable pine trees.   …Two more major fires were burning Saturday, one in a remote mountainous area in the region of Western Macedonia and another in the southern Peloponnese region, Artopoios said.

The frightening wildfires afflicting Europe during bouts of extreme heat this summer are a scourge the world will see more of in the future, scientists say. That raises questions about what can be done to mitigate their impact as society grapples with the larger challenges of trying to limit the warming of the planet. Though there are steps to be taken to prevent harm to humans and habitat, the bottom line is what we’re seeing in Europe will be an enduring challenge. “What we are witnessing now is a preview of the world we are leaving to our kids,” Víctor Resco de Dios, a professor of forestry at the University of Lleida in Spain, told CBC News. …Recent reports from Europe — which has seen nearly 1,900 wildfires so far this year, almost four times the average from 2006 to 2021 — illustrate the threat such fires already pose.

Francisco Purroy

A Dutch company caused a massive forest fire near Saragoza in Spain, the Amsterdam-based reforestation company Land Life said in a press release. According to the company, the fire started on Monday when a spark jumped from an excavator. …The Land Life workers quickly alerted authorities, but they couldn’t prevent the fire from turning into a massive forest fire. Firefighters are still working to control the fire. …the fire already destroyed some 14,000 hectares of forest and led to over 2,000 evacuations. Land Life director Francisco Purroy said they are “devastated” …especially as a company dedicated to restoring degraded land. “We at Land Life are deeply affected by the events and offer our full cooperation to the authorities.” According to the company, “the reforestation works were carried out in accordance with local regulations and following strict preventive measures to deal with the increased risk due to extreme conditions of drought and heat.”

Police custody was extended Tuesday for a 39-year-old male who is suspected of starting a fire in Gironde’s Landiras town that has burnt nearly 13,000 hectares (32,124 acres) of forest land, according to media reports.  The Bordeaux prosecutor’s office confirmed to BFMTV news that the suspect was previously arrested in 2012 on similar arson charges.  A new investigation against the suspect has been opened for the destruction by fire of wood, forest, plantation and damage to humans and property.  … The suspect was arrested based on the testimony of a witness who approached police. The witness said the man was hurriedly trying to leave the forest area in Landiras as the fire was starting to ignite.  Investigators will try to determine if the suspect was responsible for three other fires between July 13 and July 15 in the same sector, according to the report.

By DaviNet, Wikicommons

DRAFI, Greece — Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes late Tuesday as a wildfire threatened mountainside suburbs northeast of Athens. Firefighters battled through the night, struggling to contain the blaze which was being intensified by strong gusts of wind. The Fire Service said 15 planes and nine helicopters were involved in the firefighting effort 25 kilometers northeast of Athens before being grounded at nightfall. …Huge clouds of smoke from the blaze was visible in central Athens. …Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said four separate evacuation orders had been issued Tuesday, with push alerts sent to mobile phones in the affected areas. …“The flames get between the hills and form a tunnel of fire. That’s very difficult to stop and it’s not affected by the wind,” said Evangelos Bournous, mayor of Rafina. “At night time, it’s essentially an uncontrollable situation.”

LA TESTE-DE-BUCH, France — A heat wave broiling Europe spilled northward Monday to Britain and fueled ferocious wildfires in Spain and France, which evacuated thousands of people and scrambled water-bombing planes and firefighters to battle flames in tinder-dry forests. Two people were killed in the blazes in Spain that its prime minister linked to global warming, saying, “Climate change kills.” That toll comes on top of the hundreds of heat-related deaths reported in the Iberian peninsula, as high temperatures have gripped the continent in recent days and triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans. …In all, more than 31,000 people have been forced from their homes and summer vacation spots in the Gironde region since the wildfires began July 12.

Meteorologists have warned of a “heat apocalypse” in western France as more than 8,500 further people fled their homes to escape a large wildfire sparked by a searing southern European heatwave that has already caused hundreds of deaths. Nearly 25,000 people have been forced to abandon homes, holiday rentals and campsites for emergency shelters in the Gironde département west of Bordeaux, while blazes in Spain, Portugal and Greece have forced thousands more to flee. …“It never stops,” said David Brunner, one of 1,500 firefighters battling to control the Gironde blaze, which since Tuesday has destroyed 14,000 hectares of pine forest near the Dune du Pilat, Europe’s highest sand dune and a summer tourism hotspot. “In 30 years of firefighting I have never seen a fire like this.” …In neighbouring Portugal – where temperatures hit 47C last week – the fires have been brought under control after destroying 12,000-15,000 hectares of land, killing two people and injuring 60 others.

FORESTRY and Land Scotland has issued a wildfire warning as temperatures rocket across Scotland. It has said there is a “very high” risk in eastern and southern Scotland between Tuesday, July 19, and Saturday, July 23.  A tweet posted on their social media issued various pieces of guidance for those out and about over the next few days: It read: “If you see a wildfire, call 999 and ask for the Fire Service. The vast majority of wildfires in Scotland are usually accidental and caused by a stray campfire ember or a dropped cigarette. The social and economic impacts can be considerable as wildfires can be highly damaging to wildlife and their habitats. It can take a large number of firefighters to eventually get everything under control. Wildfires can also burn valuable carbon stores like trees and peatland which release greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere. 

The wildfires that have raged in Europe, Africa and North America in recent days have provided some dramatic front pages for newspapers across the world.  Among the worst fires have been in Portugal, where the Correio de Manhã has a front page headline reading “Panic and despair”.  In neighbouring Spain, the ABC newspaper declares an “Avalanche of fires out of control”.   The Observer splashes on a warning from Alok Sharma, the Tory cabinet minister who led last year’s landmark Cop26 UN climate summit, that he may resign if the incoming prime minister fails to commit to net zero plans. …A stark image on the front of Croatian newspaper 24sata shows the normally idyllic Dalmation coast with the simple headline “hell”.

Larache, Morocco – Fires ravaging remote mountain forests in northern Morocco have killed at least one person and forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 families, officials said on Friday. Fanned by strong winds, the fires that broke out on Wednesday have destroyed 1,600 hectares (nearly 4,000 acres) of woodland in the provinces of Larache, Ouezzane, Taza and Tetouan, the authorities said. “The body of a person suffering from multiple burns has been found” amid one of the blazes in the Larache region, the authorities said in a statement. The rapid spread of the fires forced 1,100 families to flee some 15 villages in Larache, while about another 645 residents were evacuated in the provinces of Taza and Tetouan. Four Canadair planes were deployed by the army to water bomb the fires. …The North African nation has, in recent days, been hit by soaring temperatures approaching 45 degrees Celsius.

Additional coverage in Arab News: More firefighters, soldiers sent to tackle Morocco’s forest blazes

Scorching temperatures and raging wildfires have already forced the evacuations of thousands of people in Portugal, France, and Spain. …A pilot died while battling a blaze in Portugal, as hundreds more were evacuated from Spain and France on Friday. A scorching heatwave has set blazes across European towns, with officials issuing heatwave warnings in the coming days. …In Portugal, five districts were on red alert as of Friday and more than 1,000 firefighters were battling at least 17 blazes, authorities said. While temperatures dipped slightly on Friday, they’re still expected to top 104 degrees Fahrenheit in some places in the coming days, authorities said. Wildfires continued to blaze in southwestern France as well, forcing hundreds to evacuate, authorities said Friday. …In Spain, authorities said at least 20 fires were raging still, with a fire near Mijas, a town on the southeastern coast of Spain, forcing the evacuation of some 2,300 people.

Since Tuesday, the flames have been devouring trees, fueled by drought, high temperatures and winds in the towns of Landiras and La Teste-de-Buch, where at least six thousand people, including tourists, were evacuated. According to the Prefecture of Gironde, 2,100 hectares have been destroyed in Landiras and 1,840 hectares in La Teste-de-Buch by fires which have not yet been brought under control, despite the mobilization of hundreds of firefighters and the use of equipment and aerial means. The day before, the fire department specified that between those mobilized and the reinforcements on the way, it expected to have a thousand personnel deployed on the ground. Visiting the area, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, declared yesterday that nine out of 10 fires have a human origin, for which he warned that the arsonists could face up to 30 years in prison if their responsibility is proven.

MADRID — Spain’s second heat wave in less than a month and the year’s first for neighboring Portugal is expected to last at least until the weekend, weather forecasters said Tuesday. With temperatures in both countries already elevated, the outlook magnified wildfire worries. Portugal could get the highest temperatures. The central Alentejo region is expected to reach 46 C (115 F) on Wednesday and Thursday. Spain’s State Meteorological Agency said southern cities such as Cordoba and Seville could reach 42 C (107.6 F). Pontevedra in northwest Spain, a region less used to such extreme heat, could hit a record 41 C (105.8 F). Meteorologists said an overheated mass of air and warm African winds are driving temperatures in the Iberian Peninsula beyond their usual highs. Portugal and Spain started the week battling a number of wildfires in both countries, and authorities said the sweltering conditions could worsen the danger.