Climate-fueled wildfires in Europe push emergency response to the limit

Amna Nawaz:

Crews are battling to control wildfires that have spread rapidly across parts of Europe, forcing the evacuation of more than 330,000 people across France, Spain, and Portugal; 15 deaths have been reported so far.

Already, nearly half-a-million acres have burned, and now a fourth heat wave threatens to worsen conditions. Here's how one French resident described the destruction.

Christophe Peres, Gironde, France, Resident (through interpreter):

We are powerless today. It has eaten everything in its path. It has invaded us completely. It has eaten all of our forest heritage. It's moving. It's moving, so we are forced to do what we can with what we have today because we lack resources tremendously. It's very, very complicated today, you see. And it is here today, and it has eaten everything.

Amna Nawaz:

Hundreds of firefighters are working to contain the flames, but the scope and the speed of the fires is straining water bombers and pushing emergency response systems to their limits.

For more on the fires and the response, I'm joined now by Ciaran Nugent. He's vice president of the International Association of Wildland Fire. He joins us from Southwest Ireland.

Ciaran, welcome to the "News Hour." Thanks for joining us.

Ciaran Nugent, Vice President, International Association of Wildland Fire: Good evening.

Amna Nawaz:

So, wildfires, we should point out, are not new across Europe. But what is different about this year's fires and the challenges that they're presenting for firefighters?

Ciaran Nugent:

Yes, I think the key thing with these fires is the scale and intensity, obviously, but also that they're early.

And the big part about these fires is the synchronicity, the simultaneous events that are happening in France and Spain and now in other parts of Europe. Those large-scale simultaneous fires, they're a strain on the available resources, both within the states involved, within the countries involved, like France and Spain, but also in terms of the shared resources that we have in Europe.

They're now on under strain. And, again, we have seen Europe basically cook, roasted in an initial heat wave. So these fires are earlier in the fire season than we would usually expect to see in Europe. And, obviously, that ferocity now is coming at a very -- at an earlier point in our fire season. So there's more to go in this.

Amna Nawaz:

You mentioned the heat wave. Are there other specific conditions that are helping to fuel these fires?

Ciaran Nugent:

We have had this climate change projection. So there's these fires are connected with that. It's not the sole reason. But that heat wave events, those heat waves are becoming more frequent. We had a heat wave last year also in Europe.

Some of the studies are showing that heat wave events that should be happening without climate change that would happen every 50 years are now happening every five years because of the increase in average temperatures that we have. And that's the problem.

So we have been in a heat dome, what they're describing as a high-pressure heat dome over, Europe. We're on the edge of it here in Ireland, but I think, in that sense, the continent has had a month, six weeks, more, to basically reduce the moisture in all of the vegetation.

And all of these forests on farmland now, all of these areas are subject to drought and are now available to burn. And that's what's happening here. And it's a widespread problem. Over half of Europe is now subject to drought or near-drought conditions, and that fire risk is now being seen in countries where we don't normally see that, including us here on the fringes of Europe.

Amna Nawaz:

So you're seeing an increased fire risk, more intense fires coming earlier in the season, year after year. Are the current emergency response systems where they need to be? Have they evolved to meet the current threat? And, if not, what needs to happen?

Ciaran Nugent:

Yes, so we're looking at some of the most advanced fire management systems in Europe, and some of most advanced systems in the world. In Spain and France, they have big wildfire resources. They're used to dealing with wildfires.

And I suppose what we're seeing now, not just in Europe, but in lots of places, the limits of what we can do in terms of response, we're reaching those limits. And it now becomes apparent that we have to do more than just respond to fires. We have to do a lot of other things to prepare landscapes and to prepare societies for these types of events.

These types of wildfire events require a much, much broader, more integrated approach. Prevention becomes part of that, the detection and monitoring of fires. Fire science becomes part of that. But the real work of this is going to happen on the land in Europe. It's about how we manage our farmland, keeping farmers on the land.

We have lost a lot of farming activity across Europe. As farmers get older and they have people move away, we have lost a lot of the ability to graze these areas. We need to restore that. We need to keep those landscapes and the vegetation as fuel in those landscapes under control.

So much, much more needs to be done than just firefighting. It's about preparing those landscapes to contain fire and to adapt to that. That's the big adapt adaptation process.

Amna Nawaz:

And, Ciaran, if some of those steps, prevention and adaptation were started to put in place even now,is that enough time, is that enough effort that it could help to prevent another record-breaking fire season next year?

Ciaran Nugent:

I think we have we have to start where we are sometimes. And a lot of work has been happening in Spain and France and countries like this.

There is -- there has been a realization for several years that this is getting -- becoming bigger issue. So the European Union, European Commission, is like the government of Europe, has released a policy paper earlier in spring describing how the types of measures that member states should be should be supporting in terms of vegetation control, fuels control, protecting rural communities, investment in fire detection systems, investment in fire monitoring systems.

All of these things have to be done in concert. Many of the Southern European countries have very advanced fire science communities, they have very advanced techniques on fire, and they're able to share those with other countries like us here in Ireland that are new to this problem.

And, again, a lot of the things that are happening, this is not the first time these have happened, but it's the first time it's happened at scale, and now we have this simultaneous nature to it. So, certainly, there are very, very clear signals that the way we manage our land, the way we adapt, that has to start changing possibly more faster than it has been.

Amna Nawaz:

We know there's still weeks to go in this fire season, so we hope all the firefighters and residents are able to stay safe.

But, Ciaran Nugent, we thank you so much for joining us, for your time and for your insights.

Ciaran Nugent:

You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you.