Forest Fires

An uncontained wildfire four times the size of Paris threatened to surge again in southwest France on Wednesday -- as three firefighters died in Greece and crews across southern Europe confronted a punishing mix of heat, drought and strong winds. The deaths on Crete brought a fatal new dimension to a wildfire emergency stretching from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean. At the peak of the evacuations, a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain. In France's Gironde region, the country's biggest blaze had not spread during a calm night, authorities said. But as temperatures approached 40 degrees Celsius Wednesday afternoon and winds strengthened, the reprieve threatened to be short-lived. The landscape was so combustible that investigators believe routine brush-clearing work near a high-voltage line may have sparked the inferno, even though the work appeared to comply with regulations. At the command centre in Lege, ...

With over 300k people evacuated across the two nations, a French official said the fire in the southwest Atlantic coast's Gironde region is headed toward Bordeaux, an urban center of 265k people

Massive forest fires forced the evacuation of some 200,000 people in southwestern France and central Spain, with residents fleeing towns near Madrid and Bordeaux as the flames raged out of control. Firefighters and authorities in both European countries on Friday were caught off guard by the virulence of the fires, which were fuelled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change. Firefighters in Spain admitted the fires were so fast and violent that they could not be tackled head on. Some people even fled by boat when flames swept through the touristic area on France's Atlantic coast. Some 141,000 fled homes in the Gironde and Landes departments in France, the French interior ministry said. In central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes, according to the Spanish interior ministry. Dozens of French firefighters were injured, authorities said, but no deaths were reported in either country despite the scenes of panic as townsfolk fled by car and police went d

Millions of people in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states muddled through another day of unhealthy air from uncontrolled wildfires on Friday. The thick smoke enveloped the nation's capital in a gloomy, eerie haze and prompted Major League Baseball's Cleveland Guardians to postpone their game against Pittsburgh Pirates in Ohio. Warnings of dangerous conditions were expected to remain in effect through Saturday across a wide swath of the U.S., though there's potential for temporary improvement with storms forecast in some affected areas during the weekend. DC resident Stewart Verdery awoke Friday to take in his usual sunrise view of the city's famous landmarks from a rooftop, only to be greeted by a darkened horizon and no monuments in sight. "It's pretty crazy to wake up at sunrise and not see the sun when it's not even raining," he said by phone after posting a video of the surreal scene on X. "And it smells like somebody's having the world's largest cookout." No en

A wildfire roared through a remote expat community in southern Spain overnight, killing at least 12 people as victims tried to flee the flames in cars and on foot, authorities said Friday. Eight people were injured, and 23 missing, Andalusia's regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno said. The blaze, one of Spain's deadliest wildfires, broke out late Thursday in a semi-arid area near the Sierra de Los Filabres mountains in Almeria province, as the country has been dealing with soaring temperatures. Most of the victims died after ignoring shelter-in-place instructions, said Antonio Sanz, head of Andalusia's emergency services. Some tried to escape via a dry riverbed that "turned into a death trap," he said. Four victims were believed to be British nationals because the steering wheel of their burned-out car was on the right side, as with British vehicles, regional authorities said. Other unspecified nationals also were believed to be among the dead, and the death toll was expected to rise,

A fire broke out in a forest area in Kasauli and at least two Indian Air Force helicopters were deployed to douse the blaze, officials said on Tuesday. The forest fire was reported near the Air Force Station in Kasauli, they said. The fire engulfed a significant portion of forest. Teams of the forest department and several fire tenders rushed to douse the fire but were unable to put out the fire. The IAF then deployed its Mil Mi-17 and Chinook helicopters to put out the fire, especially in inaccessible areas of the forest. Water was also lifted from Chandigarh's Sukhna Lake to douse the fire. Till last reports were received, efforts were still underway to put out the fire, officials said. In another incident, a forest fire was also reported in Rajhana village near Shimla. Teams of forest and fire departments rushed to put out the fire. Officials have stated that the rise in temperatures over the past few days is likely the cause behind the forest fires.

The number of days when the weather gets hot, dry and windy - ideal to spark extreme wildfires - has nearly tripled in the past 45 years across the globe, with the trend increasing even higher in the Americas, a new study shows. And more than half of that increase is caused by human-caused climate change, researchers calculated. What this means is that as the world warms, more places across the globe are prone to go up in flames at the same time because of increasingly synchronous fire weather, which is when multiple places have the right conditions to go up in smoke. Countries may not have enough resources to put out all the fires popping up and help won't be as likely to come from neighbours busy with their own flames, according to the authors of a study in Wednesday's Science Advances. In 1979 and for the next 15 years, the world averaged 22 synchronous fire weather days a year for flames that stayed within large global regions, the study found. In 2023 and 2024, it was up to mor

Firefighters in Chile are battling forest fires that started on Sunday and have killed at least 19 people and left around 1,500 homeless as they swept through thousands of acres in the centre and south of the country, officials said. Five large wildfires were still active Monday in the South American nation, with temperatures higher than usual due to a summer heat wave, said the National Service for the Prevention of Disasters. Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in the central Biobio and neighbouring uble regions on Sunday. The emergency designation allows greater coordination with the military to rein wildfires. Boric said on his X account on Monday morning that weather conditions are adverse, which means some of the fires could reignite. Wildfires are common in Chile during the summer due to high temperatures and dry weather. The current outbreak of fires in central and southern Chile is one of the deadliest in recent years. In 2024, massive fires ..

Wildfires raging across central and southern Chile on Sunday left at least 18 people dead, scorched thousands of acres of forest and destroyed hundreds of homes, authorities said, as the South American country swelters under a heat wave. Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe in the country's central Biobio region and the neighbouring Nuble region, around 500 km south of Santiago, the capital. The emergency designation allows greater coordination with the military to rein in two dozen wildfires that have so far blazed through 8,500 hectares and prompted 50,000 people to evacuate, according to Chilean Security Minister Luis Cordero. All resources are available, Boric wrote on X. But local officials reported that for hours on Sunday, destruction was everywhere and help from the federal government was nowhere. Dear President Boric, from the bottom of my heart, I have been here for four hours, a community is burning and there is no (government) presence, said

Efforts to extinguish the forest fire raging for the past five days in the Nanda Devi Wildlife Forest Division in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district were intensified on Wednesday, with the affected area surveyed by a helicopter, an official said. Sarvesh Dubey, Divisional Forest Officer of the Badrinath Forest Division, who is overseeing fire control operations, however, clarified that the option of using helicopters to drop water on the fire would not be adopted. Dubey said the helicopter was used only for aerial survey. Water bombing was not practical as the aircraft would have to travel to Tehri Lake to refill and would be able to drop only about 1,200 litres of water in an hour. He said a team of officers and employees of the forest division has reached the fire site in the Pulna and Bhyundar areas of the Pushpavati Valley under the Govindghat Forest Range, and efforts are being made to douse the flames. It may take at least two days to completely bring the fire under control, he .

From plane crashes and fires to stampedes, floods, and cyclones, 2025 drew attention to the steep human cost of systemic lapses, climate stress, and fragile disaster preparedness

A brush fire in a mountainous area north of Los Angeles ignited and spread quickly on Thursday, forcing thousands of evacuations. The Canyon Fire ignited around 1.30 pm, growing to over 4.1 square kilometres in less than three hours, according to Ventura County emergency response. It remained zero per cent contained late Thursday afternoon and was spreading east, the county said. The fire is burning just south of Lake Piru, a reservoir located in the Los Padres National Forest. It is close by Lake Castaic, a popular recreation area burned by the Hughes Fire in January. That fire burned about 39 square kilometres in six hours and put 50,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings. In LA County, around 4,200 residents and 1,400 structures are under an evacuation order, and another 12,500 residents are under an evacuation warning, said spokesperson Andrew Dowd for the Venture County Fire Department. The evacuation zones in nearby Ventura County are relatively unpopulated, Dowd said

Europe's continuing heat wave on Wednesday helped fuel a deadly wildfire in Spain while the European Union presented plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under scorching temperatures. The blaze that broke out late on Tuesday created an enormous thick plume of ash and smoke that rose 14,000 metres into the sky, making it the largest registered by firefighters in Catalonia, a northeastern region of Spain. Two farmers were killed while apparently trying to flee in a vehicle, local authorities said Wednesday. Firefighters said that the fire spread at 28 kph (17 mph) at one point as it consumed 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) mostly of grain fields. Wildfires today are not like they were before, Salvador Illa, the regional president of Catalonia, said. These are extremely dangerous. From the very first moment, it was considered to be beyond the capacity of extinction. I mean that not even with two or three times the number of firefighters, they have told me, it would have been possib

Authorities said a suspect shot at firefighters responding to a blaze near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the sheriff said two people were killed and police were still "taking sniper fire" on Sunday afternoon. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office said crews responded to a fire at Canfield Mountain around 1:30 pm (local time) and gunshots were reported about a half hour later. Governor Brad Little said multiple firefighters were attacked. This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters. I ask all Idahoans to pray for them and their families as we wait to learn more," Little said on X. The sheriff's office in neighbouring Soshone County said on Facebook that authorities were dealing with an active shooter situation where the shooter is still at large". An alert by the Kootenai County Emergency Management Office asked people to avoid the area around Canfield Mountain Trailhead and Nettleton Gulch Road, about 6.5 km north of downtown Coeur d'Alene. The fire was still burning. N

The revised plan prioritises a phased approach to tackle fire and subsidence, focusing first on the most vulnerable sites

Firefighting teams from the Forest Department and Fire and Emergency Services were deployed to control the blaze

Fifteen of the 20 countries with the largest area of primary forests that signed the 2021 forest pledge are now losing trees faster than they were at that time, according to World Resources Institute

A fast-moving wildfire burning in New Jersey has forced thousands of people to evacuate and closed a stretch of a major highway. The Garden State Parkway, one of New Jersey's busiest highways, was closed on Tuesday between Barnegat and Lacey townships, according to the New Jersey Fire Service. More than 1,300 structures were threatened and about 3,000 residents were evacuated, the fire service said. Shelters were open at two high schools, according to the Barnegat Police Department. The Jersey Central Power and Light Company cut power to about 25,000 customers at the request of the Forest Fire Service and the wildfire's command post Tuesday evening, including thousands in Barnegat Township. The company said on X that it doesn't expect to restore the power before Wednesday. This is for the safety of crews battling the fire, the company said. The fire in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area burned more than 34.2 square kilometres of land, fire officials said. The blaze, b

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would hear on April 14 a plea concerning forest fires in Uttarakhand after the state said it has taken steps to prevent such incidents. The counsel appearing for the Uttarakhand government informed a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih that meetings were held on the issue and a proposal was sent to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. When the bench said the summer season, during which incidents of forest fires are frequently reported, was approaching, the state's counsel said steps have been taken to prevent such incidents. "He (state's counsel) says there is some development," the bench told the applicant who has raised the issue of forest fires in Uttarakhand. "We will have it on April 14," the bench said. It asked the counsel appearing for the Union environment ministry to take instructions in the matter. The bench expressed the hope that the funds allocated for dealing with and preventing fore

Residents have been instructed to evacuate, as more than 2,000 firefighters use helicopters and hoses to douse the flames