Belgium: The experts have announced that after a series of scorching heatwaves, a series equivalent to the size of one-fifth of Belgium has been destroyed by fires throughout Europe. As per the prediction by the experts, this wildfire might push the entire continent towards a record-breaking year for the destruction caused by the wildfires.
Around 659,541 hectares of land might be burned over the continent between January and August, per the data published by the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis). This value has been recorded as the largest since the beginning of the records in 2016.
The data further revealed that the total land area burned across the continent is twice as large as it was between 2006 and 2021. However, the wildfires have been increased by more than four times.
In 2022, the fire figures have surpassed the previous record (of 2017) by 56 percent. As anticipated by the current trends, over a million hectares of land could be destroyed by wildfires this year, as per the reports by a website.
The European Union’s Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service (Cams) issued a warning of severe fire hazards in Western Europe last week, following which these figures were made public. Spain, France and Portugal witnessed higher than average active fires in July and August, as per the statics by Cams.
In France, the wildfires evacuated around 10,000 people and 14,000 hectares of land were burned in June. However, a fire in Spain forced the evacuation of eight (8) communities and 1,500 people after the authorities claimed that the fire was out of control and had destroyed nearly 8,000 hectares.
