NewsEuropeFrance is going through its worst wave of forest fires in the last 20 years, according to the EU

France is going through its worst wave of forest fires in the last 20 years, according to the EU

File image of fires in France – Thibaud Moritz/AFP/dpa

The European Union’s Copernicus Program estimates that the wave of fires that are ravaging France this summer is the worst the country has seen in the last 20 years, according to satellite images captured by its Atmospheric Monitoring Services (CAMS).

“The comparison of different years in the data set of the last 20 years”, according to the program on its website, demonstrates “since the beginning of June 2022, significantly higher values ​​for France, Spain and Portugal”, in particular during “the heat of July and August”.

The extent of the fires captured by these images is unmatched in any year since 2003, according to CAMS Chief Officer Mark Parrington.

“The extreme fire danger rates mean that the scale and intensity of the fires have grown exponentially, with the consequent impact on air quality,” he added in comments to DPA.

At the moment, and as far as the situation on the ground is concerned, the fire that broke out on Tuesday in the French department of Gironde has not registered “significant” progress during the night from Thursday to Friday, although the authorities have already raised 7,400 hectares burned in recent days.

The Prefecture of New Aquitaine has warned in a statement this Friday that there is still a “very serious risk” of expansion of the flames, due to the high temperatures and the dryness of the ground. Some 1,100 troops participate in the extinction tasks, to which teams from several European countries have also joined.

Another overnight fire in the Broceliande forest west of Rennes has already destroyed 230 hectares of vegetation and two water pumps from Sweden as reinforcements to help fight it, the Prefecture of Rennes Morbihan also announced this Friday in a statement collected. for ‘Le Figaro’.

A total of 150 people have been forced to carry out a preventive evacuation in the town of Campeneac, according to the note.

Two other forest fires have devoured some 660 hectares since Tuesday in the south of the Jura, where the progression of one of the outbreaks could end up stopped in a matter of hours while the other fire is already under control.

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