Europe's Battle Against Wildfires Bring Out Both Tragedy and Resilience
Europe's struggle against a wave of wildfires continues. Amid the devastation are scenes of resilience as some communities come together to do what needs doing to push back the flames and keep life going.
Europe Battles Massive Wildfires
REPORTER:
A firefighting plane zooms towards its target: a patch of burning forest in Spain’s smoldering countryside. Special planes like these can lift up to 6,000 liters of water into the air, ready to drench the flames below. But the battle against this year’s massive wildfire outbreak has been a long one, and even the well-trained military pilots flying these missions are feeling pushed to their limits.
BITE
Military Pilot:
I just can’t stop being shocked. This fire has indeed been on a colossal scale. We’ve been flying for kilometers from the loading point to the drop zones, taking in a desolate landscape. And the truth is, it’s a real shame, because we’re fighting to defend the greatest treasure we have: our countryside and our natural environment. And it’s very emotionally draining.
REPORTER:
Civilians on the ground face the nightmarish aftermath of these fires up close. Sometimes returning to homes they can no longer recognize. For some people, like the residents of the town of Artana in Spain’s east, the pain is compounded by the knowledge that they’d done everything right and still weren’t spared.
BITE
Artana Resident:
Artana was one of the few municipalities that cleared the outskirts of the town during the winter. The entire perimeter area was cleaned because there was a large amount of leaf litter and undergrowth. The municipality did a great deal to clear it up and improve the town in that respect, but as you can see, the mountains are burning before our eyes.
REPORTER:
Spanish officials said Wednesday that conditions overnight had helped firefighters get some control, but still, parts of the countryside burn fiercely, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says the coming hours will be critical.
In neighboring France, firefighters exhausted by days of battling intense blazes take a moment to rest and gather their strength ahead of the next attack. Conditions have been tough, but firefighters haven’t been alone as a spirit of community spreads in affected areas.
Everyone helps how they can. Volunteers form backup brigades to put out flames.
BITE
French Volunteer:
So when we saw this on the news, we couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, so we said we’d go. I contacted my mate, he was up for it, off we went. So yeah, we got hold of a milk tank from a farmer friend who kindly agreed to lend it to us. We loaded up and then came straight down. We took the highway, got here, and were sent straight to the site. And since yesterday, we’ve been here filling the wildfire tankers, doing everything we can.
REPORTER:
Other volunteers tend to the evacuees staying in shelters, even giving their pets veterinary care.
BITE
Veterinary Volunteer:
I just couldn’t sit in a flat doing nothing while all this was happening, knowing I might have some useful skills — or, if nothing else, simply be able to lend a hand. It turns out there’s plenty to do here. When you see all these people with animals who haven’t necessarily had time to take everything they need, there’s a lot of advice to give and plenty of practical help we can offer, thanks to the extraordinary volume of donations we’ve received.
REPORTER:
But tragedy continues to spread, including elsewhere in Europe. Three Greek firefighters died Wednesday as fire surged across the island of Crete, fanned by strong winds.
And, just adjacent to Europe, in southwest Turkey, similar conditions are feeding large blazes in wooded areas. Experts say Europe has always had wildfires, but that these latest ones are not at all normal.
BITE
Expert:
The effect of climate change in what is happening today in Europe is very strong. It's impossible to deny it or to hide it. It's not the only thing that is happening, so this is not just about climate change, it's an emergency across scales and stakeholders. But climate change and this intense, continuous number of heat waves that we are suffering is making the forest and the vegetation a level of dryness that is very unusual.
REPORTER:
But normal or not, it is happening, testing Europe with a grueling fight to keep the flames under some kind of control.
