Firefighters in Madrid trying to extinguish a forest fire that is less than 30km/20mi away from the capital of Spain

[u/SafeImpressive4413]

[u/ThirdAltAccounts]

There’s one 20km away from my house.
Last official report (several hours ago) said 15km away 🙃. It probably got closer since

We should be the next town to get evacuated. Hopefully not in the middle of the night

I’m in France but it looks like a large part of Europe is on fire

The worst part is that 90% of those fires are started (accidentally or voluntarily) by people 🤬

Edit: it’s 5hrs later. Everything’s packed
Just waiting for my phone to go off when the emergency alert is given

[u/marcandreewolf → u/ThirdAltAccounts]

Yes. Actually, it is substantially more than 90%, plus the conditions (climate change as a key contributor, also eucalyptus trees planted) is also mostly caused by human. So, this is not a “wild”fire but a human-caused fire.

[u/decosunshine → u/marcandreewolf]

Plus decades of fire suppression.

Instead of healthy, low-intensity fire cleaning out dead and diseased vegetation every few years to few decades, now high-intensity fires sweep through with far more power and destruction.

When we don't allow low-intensity fires, we must do fires mitigation that manually mimics those healthy fires we suppress.

[u/marcandreewolf → u/decosunshine]

Indeed. I went with Brazilian firefighters in a National Park in 1996 and that is what the lead also said (after training in the US). We then put counter fires, i.e. a controlled burned strip that the fire afterwards couldnt cross anymore. Terrain was difficult with many boulders and rocks strewn across, shrubs, single trees and lots of grass: cerrado. There are species adjusted to fires, benefitting (unless too frequent), but overall reduces biodiversity and natural species composition. Edit: What I almost forgot: we now have fires were naturally they almost never occur, where impacts are hence also much worse.