As the official death toll from Greece’s wildfires mounted, it became clear this was a national tragedy of a kind awfully familiar to Australians. Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Horrific stories emerged as rescue workers made gruesome discoveries, such as the group of 26 men, women and children who perished while huddled together, trapped between the fire front and a sheer cliff.
The death toll stood at 74 on Wednesday morning. Many more survived by the skin of their teeth – fleeing into the sea as the fires overtook their holiday houses. It is the peak holiday period for locals as well as tourists.
Fishing and coastguard vessels patrolled the coast, plucking people out of the water to safety. Strong, unpredictable winds fanned and spread flames that killed people in their homes and in some of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cars that had tried to flee at the last minute but were lost in smoke and gridlock.
“Everything happened in seconds,” Andreaas Passios, who lives in the devastated town of Mati, told the Times. “I grabbed a beach towel. It saved my life. I soaked it, grabbed my wife and we ran to the sea.” He and his wife stayed by the sea for two hours watching the inferno.
“It was unbelievable. Gas canisters were exploding, burning pine cones were flying everywhere.”
The fire is the latest, and most tragic, result of a heatwave that has baked Europe this summer, setting temperature records and starting fires from Norway to Spain.
Sweden has lost an estimated 30,000 hectares of forest in wildfires across the country which were still burning – though the number of fires had dropped from 80 last week to around 20.
The area is more than double that damaged in the 2014 fire in Västmanland, which at the time was said to be Sweden’s worst since the 19th century. It is more than 10 times the average annual area burnt by fire in a typical Swedish summer.
Forests are vital to the Swedish economy and the country has called for help in fighting the fires. Summer temperatures typically hit the low 20s. The current 30+ heatwave is rare and authorities lack the resources to tackle big fires.
A week ago, Italy sent two firefighting planes to help the Swedes, and other countries including Poland, Portugal and France also lent volunteers and equipment. The response is being coordinated by the European Union’s Civil Protection and Emergency Response centre, which helps EU and neighbour countries share the load during disasters.
The same group has now mobilised to help Greece, while Australia has offered to help the recovery effort. Treasurer Scott Morrison said the government would provide whatever support was appropriate to help the fire-stricken areas.
“[We are] a country that is very familiar with the heartbreak and tragedy of fires,” Morrison said.
“And as a country that also has one of the largest expatriate populations of Greek nationals of anywhere around the world, we deeply empathise with those who are caught up in these tragic fires in Greece.
“There will be many Australians I’m sure who have family members that may be affected.”
Fires have also ravaged woods and grassland in northern Finland near the Russian border, Latvia has lost more than 800 hectares in fires that have raged for almost a week, and a Norwegian firefighter died last week trying to contain a wildfire.
Last year, 66 people died from wildfires in Portugal – its biggest loss of lives.
Also last year, an EU-commissioned report predicted new “forest fire danger extremes” due to climate change in Europe.
Scientific modelling has shown the south and south-eastern parts of Europe would be worst hit. And these trends would continue to get worse – and extend northwards. About a third of Europe – 215 million hectares – is covered by forest.
In 2010, wildfires damaged about half a million hectares but this number is expected to rise dramatically. Last year, the burnt area in Portugal, Spain and Italy alone was almost double that.
The report from the EU’s science service, the Joint Research Centre, found that climate change would reduce the protective effect of the Alps, which creates an area of high moisture guarding Europe’s heart.
Down by the sea, lower rainfall and higher temperatures would dry forests into summer tinderboxes.
“It is clear that the danger of forest fires driven by weather increases with climate change around the Mediterranean,” the report found.
The report had expected relatively little change in weather-driven fire danger across northern Europe due to climate change.
Another report from the European Environment Agency said Mediterranean countries were already seeing more heat extremes, reduced rainfall and river flows, and resulting severe droughts, lower crop yields, forest fires and heatwave deaths.
In the north of the continent, the temperature rise will be even bigger than the global average, with a decrease in snow and ice cover, an increase in crop yields and decrease in heating costs, but increasing risk of damage from winter storms.
In central and eastern Europe there will be less summer rain and a bigger risk of forest fires. In the mountains there will be less skiing and more species extinction.
“[These heatwaves are] exactly the kind of event we are expecting to see,” said Professor Corinne Le Quere, director of the climate change research team at the University of East Anglia.
“In a warmer climate we expect more extreme events, we expect extreme heatwaves to be hotter and last longer.”
However, fire is “a whole different beast” and harder to predict, she said. Wildfires have a range of causes and only some are linked to climate change: for example heat drying out forests, and more lightning starting fires.
Some wildfires, such as those two years ago in Canada, have been closely examined and the attribution to climate change is “very clear”, Ms Le Quere said.
She expects scientists to closely examine the fires in Sweden this year, to see if there can be an attribution to climate change. If so, this may confound models that had predicted no increase in fires due to a predicted increase in rainfall.
Ms Le Quere said it was clear that global warming would continue as long as carbon emissions were not brought under control, leading to more and more extreme hot weather.
“We really need to think about how do we tackle climate change in a way that protects us and reduces risk,” she said.
Research estimated that without mitigation and adaptation there would be 200,000 heat-related deaths per year in Europe by 2100, as well as €10 billion ($15.7 billion) worth of river flood damages, increased forest fire damage and reduced crop yields.
However, there are already EU-wide adaptation strategies in place, ranging from dykes and flood drains to ambitious long-term goals on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and by 80%-95% by 2050.
The EU is behind about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The reduction can be achieved through effective carbon prices and regulation and through investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency, the EEA said.
