More and earlier fires in EU — but not enough fire-fighters

Now summer is officially here, temperatures are rising and the risk of wildfires increases.

High temperatures and dry conditions due to climate change have increased both the risk of wildfires in Europe and the timing, to earlier than before.

Significant fires were already recorded in different regions of Spain in March, with serious associated emissions. Portugal has also seen fires burn over 7,000 hectares this year. In Ireland, 20 wildfires registered in March burned over 1,000 hectares of land. And France has already surpassed its annual average of fire-ravaged areas, compared to last year.

“Having wildfires of these proportions so early in the year is an unusual occurrence,” confirmed the EU’s climate monitoring agency Copernicus.

The effects of climate change are not confined to the southern states of the EU. Even Nordic countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Finland have experienced small fires this year, raising questions about how prepared member states across the EU are to respond to such emergencies.

Will there be enough trained staff for the summer? The EU’s Rescue Mechanism, which can be activated if a member state is unable to respond to an emergency, has doubled the capacity of its fleet to respond to wildfires this summer.

From June this year to the end of October, this flagship initiative will consist of 24 airplanes, four helicopters and 450 firefighters spread across Greece, France, and Portugal.