Forest fires: Nine member states now have new burned area records

The full space burned throughout this yr's wildfire season reached new information in 9 European Union member states, new determine exhibits.

As of October 1, greater than 771,000 hectares had been scorched by forest fires within the 27-country bloc, itself the highest tally noticed since information started in 2006, based on the European Forest Hearth Data System (EFFIS).

9 international locations noticed new information. They had been Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. 

For six of them, the information had been shattered by massive margins as a result of the annual averages recorded between 2006 and 2021 had been extraordinarily low.

That is the case of the Czech Republic, the place 1,436 hectares had been burned this yr in comparison with a mean of simply 9.06 within the 2006-2021 interval — about 160 instances increased.

Austria's new document of 1,016 hectares burned is 58 instances increased than the 2006-2021 averages, whereas Slovenia's tally of 388 hectares is 42 instances bigger.

Spain's new document is by far the biggest with 299,635 hectares burned this yr in comparison with a mean of 66,965. The nation was probably the most impacted nation throughout the EU.

The bloc's Emergency Response Coordination Centre was activated 11 instances over this final wildfire season to supply aerial and/or floor help to international locations together with Albania, the Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain. 

Greater than 200 European firefighters had in the meantime been pre-positioned in Greece, historically a closely affected nation. 

In response to the record-breaking wildfires which had been fuelled by a sequence of heatwaves that began as early as Could, the European Fee introduced this week that it's going to make investments an additional €170 million from the EU finances to bolster rescEU capacities.

The goal is for the programme, a part of the Civil safety mechanism, to have a complete of twenty-two planes and 4 helicopters unfold out throughout the bloc earlier than summer time 2023, up from the 12 firefighting planes and one helicopter on the disposal of struggling member states this yr.