Fighting wildfires is getting harder — these tips could help
With Spain declaring a national emergency, France seeking EU assistance and Canada dealing with more than 900 hot spots, wildfires are out of control. How
With Spain declaring a national emergency, France seeking EU assistance and Canada dealing with more than 900 hot spots, wildfires are out of control. How can we stop our forests from burning? Intense, relentless heat waves and prolonged drought have triggered another severe wildfire season across Europe this summer, with crews battling massive blazes in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the UK and even Norway. Similar conditions have also fueled fires in the United States and Canada. For weeks, hundreds of wildfires have ripped throughout the vast boreal forest stretching from the Yukon in the north to Newfoundland in the east. As of July 24, they've wiped out at least 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres — an area larger than Belgium. As toxic smoke shrouded major cities, also in the US, President Donald Trump accused Canada on social media of "not properly maintaining their Forests" and deliberately neglecting "basic Forest Management and Debris Removal." Smoke worsened air quality and cast an eerie light over cities in Canada and the US, including Toronto Image: Cole Burston/AFP 'No one-size-fits-all' solution While eliminating flammable fuel is part of the job for fire experts, effective management goes beyond just clearing debris. And in Canada, clearing brush from such an extensive, remote area would be impossible. "There is no one-size-fits-all" solution, said Amy Duchelle, a senior forestry officer with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Frequent extreme heat waves and extended droughts linked to human-caused climate change are drying out trees and undergrowth. That's fueling high-intensity fires more likely to burn out of control, said Duchelle — even in places previously too humid to burn. Tropical forests like the Amazon region or Southeast Asia didn't evolve to coexist with fire — no thick, resistant bark or plants suited to germinate after a blaze. Here, it's crucial to stop deforestation linked to mining and agriculture, preserve the canopy and vegetation that creates the humid, fire-resistant habitat, and train people to immediately respond to any fire risk. Heat waves fuel wildfires across southern Europe To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In Europe, management solutions can include cross-border monitoring and protection, and prioritizing fire-resistant vegetation instead of highly flammable conifers.
That also means bringing back diverse tree species that contribute to more resilient forests, which have dwindled due to farming and exploitation over the centuries. Fighting fire with fire In some places, fire itself is key to preserving forests. "Our boreal forest is a fire-dependent forest — it needs fire for health," said Amy Cardinal Christianson, an Indigenous Metis fire specialist in western Canada. She said a certain number of blazes are part of a natural cycle, creating natural firebreaks, stimulating fresh plant growth and restoring ecosystems — all of which can slow the spread of wildfires. Research has shown that certain forests have evolved to live with periodic fires, which act as a sort of reset. The flames can clear the way for smaller plants struggling to compete with unchecked undergrowth, for example, and burned material also releases nutrients that enrich the soil. Some fires help forest landscapes to thrive Image: Ondrej Hajek/CTK/picture alliance But Canada's wildfire season is now accelerating the normal, healthy cycle — starting earlier, lasting longer and becoming harder to control. It's also adding to Canada's carbon emissions: the 2023 record fire season, which wiped out five times the annual average of forestland, added 23% to the world's annual wildfire emissions. Some of the pollutants even made it as far as western Europe. Christianson, a former research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service and now director of fire stewardship with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, said older forest management practices ideas introduced by Europeans to support the timber industry — strict regulation, complete suppression and a focus on fast-growing monocultures — don't fit into the Canadian context. "By excluding fire, we've actually accelerated the risk," she said, adding that periodic controlled burns can actually help reduce the risk of out-of-control infernos. Global fire hub aims to share knowledge Duchelle told DW how skilled pros who've dealt with forest fires for decades are now seeing blazes even they can't control — "the fire is moving too fast, the flames are too high, the heat is too intense." Faced with these challenges, the focus has shifted from suppressing fires to reducing risk, preparing for changing conditions and building post-fire resilience.
The BriefWire