Category Archives: Forest Fires

On October 26, an unseasonably warm Saturday following a run of hot days, lightning stabbed at the ranges. One bolt made ground near a disused airstrip at Gospers Mountain, a densely grown area of the Wollemi National Park, and prickled the kindling into life. It would become the epicentre of the biggest forest fire to have started from a single ignition point that Australia has ever known. …The Gospers Mountain fire has now destroyed an area seven times the size of Singapore – more than 444,000 hectares from the western border of the Blue Mountains to the Central Coast hinterland, north to the Hunter Valley and south to the Hawkesbury and past the Bells Line of Road. Three weeks ago it combined with several fires to form a vast complex that has been dubbed “the mega fire”. To those living in its shadow, it is known as “the monster”.

Dozens of fires will burn across Australia for weeks, fire authorities say, including a “mega-fire”, already the size of greater Sydney, that is too big to put out. Sunday there were 96 bush and grass fires in NSW – 47 of which were not contained. Five fires are at a watch and act level. …Already this fire season, six people have died and more than 1,000 homes have been lost across. The largest conflagration, the “mega fire” at Gospers Mountain near Sydney’s north-western outskirts, was likely to burn for weeks until substantial rain falls… The NSW Bureau of Meteorology said the largest fires simply could not be extinguished by water-bombing aircraft or firefighting crews on the ground. …The chief scientist at the Australian Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Dr Bidda Jones, said that, beyond the human cost of the fires, the widespread blazes would have a “major impact of biodiversity”.

Two Manitobans who work with the province’s wildfire program are heading to Australia to help battle wildfires that have devastated parts of the country.  For weeks, Australian firefighters have been battling widespread bushfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and killed hundreds of koalas. The two Manitobans are part of a contingent of 21 highly qualified Canadians who were selected by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) to travel to Australia. The agency had received an official request from Australian authorities to send help.  The team will help with planning, aviation and operations in wildfire fighting efforts.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling the North Black Range fire after it jumped the Shoalhaven River west of Braidwood. The fire burning in the Tallaganda National Park, east of Canberra, was downgraded from emergency level to watch and act as a southerly change saw conditions ease late Friday night. The blaze is 12,000 hectares in size and just 1 kilometre from the town of Braidwood. Following the downgrade, the News South Wales Rural Fire Service has advised Braidwood residents to action their fire plan. “If your plan is to leave, leave now if the path is clear,” NSW RFS said on Twitter. There have been no reports of properties lost on Friday evening.  Rural Fire Service district officer Darren Marks said several spot fires that broke from the Tallaganda National Park have now joined up. 

The Australian state of New South Wales was gasping under the worst levels of air pollution ever recorded on Friday as smoke from widespread bushfires caused a spike in hospital visits and hazards including poor visibility for drivers. Sydney, the country’s most populous city, was blanketed in a thick haze for the fourth consecutive day, pushing it into a rare and repeat appearance in the list of top ten cities with the worst air pollution in the world. Even as a cooler change brought some relief for firefighters battling scores of blazes burning for days across four states, many of the 7.5 million residents of New South Wales switched from contemplating evacuation to avoid rapidly advancing wildfires to hiding indoors from the smoke. 

This is what the unprecedented wildfires on Australia’s east coast look like from space. Around 12,000 square kilometres have burned in New South Wales and Queensland since July, an area larger than Jamaica. The fires have caused four deaths, injured more than a hundred and destroyed more than 300 homes. And this is just the beginning of the Australia region’s usual fire season. This chilling image of the east coast was obtained by blogger Pierre Markuse using NASA’s Aqua MODIS satellite.

One of the most dangerous bush fire days in the history of southeastern Australia, particularly from Greater Sydney north to Byron Bay, resulted Tuesday in numerous large and rapidly spreading blazes. But the day passed without the huge loss to life and property that was feared. It did, however, spark a political firestorm over the role that climate change is playing in intensifying the country’s bush fires. Firefighters are bracing for more dangerous conditions in coming days, as the entire Australian continent is projected to be in a rain void of sorts, with just a few showers occurring over Tasmania during the next 10 days. Tuesday featured more than 15 “emergency warnings” from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, which included the dire and direct wording of “It is too late to leave. … Seek shelter as the fire approaches.”

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s most populous state declared a state of emergency on Monday due to unprecedented wildfire danger as calls grew for Australia to take more action to counter climate change. New South Wales state Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said residents were facing what “could be the most dangerous bushfire week this nation has ever seen.” Fires in the state’s northeast have claimed three lives, destroyed more than 150 homes and razed more than 1 million hectares (3,800 square miles) of forest and farmland since Friday. Doctors and paramedics have treated more than 100 people for fire-related injuries, including 20 firefighters, Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan said. …The annual Australian fire season, which peaks during the Southern Hemisphere summer, has started early after an unusually warm and dry winter. 

The Joint Research Centre published the 2018 edition of its Annual Report on Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. According to the report, wildfires destroyed nearly 178,000 hectares (ha) of forests and land in the EU last year. While this is less than one sixth of the area burnt in 2017, and less than the long-term average, more countries than ever before suffered from large fires. Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, responsible for the Joint Research Centre, added: “Changing weather conditions associated with climate change increase the risk for forest fires globally. We need to respond and step up our efforts to make our forests more resilient to a warmer and drier climate. Evidence provided by the Joint Research Centre allows us to focus on the most effective ways to prevent wildfires, helping us protect our forests, which is key to preserve biodiversity and citizens’ quality of life.”

Beirut, Lebanon – Firefighters in Lebanon battled massive wildfires in several areas in the country, before moderate rains in the evening brought them under control in most affected areas. With more than 100 blazes erupting from north to south over the past two days, Raymond Khattar, the director-general of Lebanon’s Civil Defence, described the forest fires as the worst to have hit the country in decades. …The Lebanese Red Cross announced that they had treated more than 70 people at a field hospital in Damour… The areas most heavily affected were in the Chouf and Metn regions, in the lush Mount Lebanon mountain range east and southeast of the capital, Beirut. Aided by strong winds and unseasonably high temperatures, the fires ate their way through dense forest near the towns of Meshref and Damour in Chouf and swept into the residential areas overnight on Monday, leading many families to flee their homes.

RIO DE JANEIRO — The number of fires has declined sharply in Brazil’s Amazon region an alarming rise in July and August, but state environmental workers say the fight continues as officials still promote economic development in protected natural areas. Fires in the Amazon went down 35.5% in September compared to August, with 19,925 fires, according to data published Tuesday by the National Institute for Space Research. Official data going back to 1998 show that historically, September tends to have more fires than August. Fire is regularly used to clear land by ranchers and farmers as well as illegal loggers and miners. But in July and August, parts of the Amazon burned at a pace unseen since 2010, fueling global worries about climate change.

…But the fires in the Amazon rainforest this year are different. Thousands of fires are continuing to ravage the rainforest in Brazil in the most intense blazes for almost a decade. The Amazon is the largest rainforest area remaining on Earth. It is home to unique wildlife and ecosystems, and plays an important role in carbon storage and global climate. But why is the Amazon is burning? What’s the relationship between these fires and the political situation in Brazil? And what are the local and global implications of these fires? …The fires in the Amazon are a result of the combination of three main factors: deforestation, farming and climate change. Research from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows an 88 percent increase in deforestation in June 2019 in comparison with the same period last year. …And there is hope. …There just needs to be political will, and a fair political system, behind it.

…Bolivian firefighters, army troops and volunteers have been working nonstop for the past two months amid some of the worst fires in the country’s recent history. President Evo Morales, who is running for reelection next month, has suspended his campaign to deal with the expanding disaster. On Saturday, regional officials estimated nearly 6 million acres of forest and savanna have been torched since August. Eduardo Forno, who heads the Bolivian chapter of Conservation International, says that is almost equal to the area burned this year in the Amazon rainforest in neighboring Brazil, a country eight times larger. …Cecilia Requena says Morales’ government initially downplayed the extent of the fires and the response has been late, chaotic and ineffectual. …Now, a state sponsored TV campaign is portraying Morales as Bolivia’s firefighter in chief, with spots showing a determined-looking Morales spraying water on the flames.