Wildfires in Europe

In Context

• Recently, European countries like France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have been battling intense wildfires.

More about the news

• Europe is battling intense wildfires with thousands of hectares of forest land burned to the ground amid a searing heatwave.
• The blaze forced thousands from their homes and killed several emergency personnel.
• It is the second heatwave engulfing parts of southwest Europe in weeks.

Reasons behind these wildfires

• Wildfires require 
  • Right climatic conditions, 
  • Burnable fuel and 
  • A spark.
• Climatic Conditions in Europe:
  • As for Europe, the region has been hit by an early fire season due to an unusually dry, hot spring that left the soil parched. 
  • Authorities attribute this to climate change. 
    • They add that the fires are being fanned by earlier-than-usual extreme temperatures and drought conditions in some parts.
• Burnable fuel:
  • Rising temperatures suck moisture out of plants, creating an abundance of dry fuel. 
  • Drought and high heat can kill plants and dry out dead grass, and other material on the forest floor that fuels the fire once it starts sweeping through a patch. 
• The spark:
  • Spark is sometimes caused by lightning, at other times by accident or recklessness of the local population.
  • A 2018 fire in California in the US, for instance, was started when a truck blew out its tire and its rim scraped the pavement, sending out sparks.

Impacts of wildfire

• Pollution:
  • Air pollution caused by wildfires is more intense than other forms of air pollution, although it tends to occur over a shorter period of time.
  • Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture of fine and coarse particulate matter and gases, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and air toxics.
• Health hazards:
  • While fire poses a direct risk to people’s life and property, wildfire smoke, and particularly the concentration of PM 2.5, or particles smaller than 2.5 microns, can also affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. 
  • For those already suffering from cardiovascular or respiratory illnesses, there is a risk of flare-ups.
• Wildlife:
  • Wildfires destroy not only flora (tree, herbs, grassland, forbs, etc.) and their diversity but also have considerable long-term negative impact on fauna including wild endangered species.
  • They impact the wildlife by burning eggs, killing young animals and driving the adult animals away from their habitat.
• Forests & Soil:
  • Wildfires destroy the organic matter in the soil and expose the top layer to erosion.
    • This also leads to the loss of crops.
  • They damage the regeneration in the forests and their productivity.
• Economic:
  • Wildfires can disrupt transportation, communications, power and gas services, and water supply. 

Prevention & Mitigation of wildfires

• Prevention:
  • Forecasting fire-prone days using meteorological data.
  • Clearing camping sites of dried biomass.
  • Early burning of dry litter on the forest floor.
  • Growing strips of fire-hardy plant species within the forest.
  • Creating fire lines (strips in the forest kept clear of vegetation to prevent the fire from spreading) in the forests.
  • Controlled burns are also used to prevent forest fires.
    • A controlled burn is a wildfire that people set intentionally for a specific purpose. 
    • Well-thought-out and well-managed controlled burns can be incredibly beneficial for forest management because they can help stop an out-of-control wildfire.
• Mitigation:
  • Early detection and quick action by fire-fighting squads are crucial.
  • For such activities, the forest departments have a fire protection and fire control unit.
  • The best way to control a forest fire is, therefore, to prevent it from spreading, which can be done by creating firebreaks in the shape of small clearings of ditches in the forests.

International Efforts

• The report, “Spreading like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires”, prepared by the United Nations Environmental Programme, has sounded the alarm on wildfires.
• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – “Fire Ready Formula”
  • UNEP recently called on global governments to adopt a new ‘Fire Ready Formula,’ as it warned that incidences of wildfires would rise in the future.
    • The UNEP has called for strengthening international and regional cooperation on wildfires.
    • Development of an international standard for wildfire management has also been recommended.

Source: DTE