![]() When it comes to reforesting, burned patches will only be replanted next year. Below the charred bark of burnt trees, some wood is still in good condition and businesses like Planfor have been converting it into lumber, timber and fuel. "The better the forest is looked after, the lower the fire stays," said Pierre Berges, 53, a private forest manager at local business Planfor.įor months now, Berges has been busy salvaging what he could from forests ravaged by wildfires. "It's going to be exceptionally costly, and so far we have zero."įrom officials to wood workers, everyone agreed that clear pathways and firebreaks in forests are key to slowing down wildfires. "It will take at least 15 years to get back to a normal landscape," he said.ĭedieu added that he felt powerless and abandoned by authorities since the disaster: "We need to rebuild our roads and our pathways," he said. Mayor Vincent Dedieu, 46, could not hide his sadness while looking at the wide empty land punctuated with piles of cut trees right outside the village. ![]() "It's no longer the village I knew: there were woods, we could hike, it was wonderful," said Bernard Morlot, 79, who told Reuters he was thinking of moving away. Firefighters managed to save all but one house, yet some scars remain. In Gironde, the wildfires that surrounded the town of Origne and displaced its inhabitants for two weeks last July are long extinguished. Spain's first major wildfire of the year raged in the eastern Valencia region on Friday, destroying more than 3,000 hectares of forest and forcing 1,500 residents to abandon their homes, authorities said. The risk from failure to act is collapsing soils, falling trees and the prospect of an endless cycle of increasingly uncontrollable fires that have not only devastated natural habitats but also destroyed homes and businesses. Governments are thus working out how to make forests and woodlands more resilient to climate change with better scrub clearance, more hardwood trees that burn less easily and other steps to prevent the region becoming an inferno every year. The interior ministry said measures for fighting forest fires across France will be presented in the coming weeks.Īn unusually dry winter across parts of the south of the European continent has reduced moisture in the soil and raised fears of a repeat of 2022, when 785,000 hectares were destroyed in Europe - more than double the annual average for the past 16 years, according to European Commission (EC) statistics. "It is obvious that we need an urgent answer from the government on air assets," said Got. When it comes to wildfires risk, she said that prevention was crucial, as well as swift intervention when a fire first starts, which is easier to do from above. Pascale Got, a local official in charge of environmental protection, said that the fire at Hostens was under constant surveillance from drones measuring heat levels. "All the greenery will come back in the spring, which will be flammable, so we have to make sure new fires can't start from these hot spots," Carnir said. The Gironde region was particularly badly hit with 20,000 hectares of forest destroyed, and the risk of renewed fires is a great concern. The blaze at Hostens is a remnant of huge wildfires that ravaged southern Europe last summer when the worst drought on record was compounded by successive heatwaves which scientists say are consistent with climate change. ![]() "To this date, we don't have a clear answer as to how to stop it." "It's been burning since mid-July," said Guillaume Carnir, who works for France’s National Forest Agency (ONF). The smell of burning tyres is caused by the brown coal in the area's peaty soil which is fuelling the fire underground. HOSTENS, France, March 25 (Reuters) - As France frets about an extended drought and prospects for more wildfires in another long summer, one blaze that erupted eight months ago in the southwest of the country still smoulders away underground.Ĭolumns of white, acrid smoke rise from a forest floor outside the town of Hostens in the Gironde region, south of Bordeaux. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |