The weather here in southern Spain is at last cooling down, but the threat of wildfires remains.
The Guardian reported a day or two ago that more than 1million hectares in the EU this year have been torched by wildfires, making 2025 the worst year on record, with still a month to go until the wildfire season ends.
Four times as much land has been engulfed by fire this year than the average for the same period over the past two decades, according to official data that was updated last Friday. According to the Guardian, “data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), which goes back to 2003, shows 1,015,024 hectares have burned this year – breaking the previous record of 988,544 hectares that was set in 2017, with weeks of dangerous fire weather still to come.”
As we know, the fires have charred homes, blackened forests and choked cities. But what we often forget is that they also dump a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to the Guardian article, this year’s blazes so far “have pumped out 37m tonnes of carbon dioxide – about as much as the yearly CO2 emissions of Portugal or Sweden, each home to 10 million people.”
Dear Reader, do you have a copy of the Bas Buur Development Wildfire Watch app which is a moderated service here in Andalucia to respond quickly to fires flagged by members of the pubic? You can download it here. There are also other similar apps.
An interesting comment was made a couple of nights ago on the Wildfire Watch app in the context of a fire in RioGordo. Someone said, what many believe, that most fires are caused by arson. But they were corrected by the Moderator who said most fires are caused by negligence.
What does this mean exactly? According to Google AI, that means:
- Unattended Campfires: Fires left burning or not fully extinguished can easily spread to surrounding vegetation
- Discarded Smoking Materials: Carelessly thrown cigarettes or matches can ignite dry grass and brush
- Equipment Malfunctions & Use: Sparks or excessive heat from machinery, such as chainsaws, lawnmowers, and vehicle exhaust, can start a fire.
Let us remember how easy it is to start a fire and how hard it often is to put them out!
Read the full Guardian article here.