In the early hours of Sunday, March 16, a fire broke out in a discotheque in Kocani, North Macedonia, killing 59 people and injuring more than 155 others. The EU Emergency Response Coordination Center quickly contacted the North Macedonian civil protection authorities to offer solidarity and support. North Macedonia has activated the Union Civil Protection […]
The EU-backed FIRE-RES project is joining the battle against Europe’s forest fires with its new platform and app.
Wildfires are becoming a major threat worldwide. In Europe alone, they are responsible for around 85 % of annual burned areas. To help address this problem, the EU-funded FIRE-RES project is developing an integrated fire management strategy that will focus on fire prevention and preparedness, detection and response, and restoration and adaptation. As part of […]
European Forest Fire report: Three of the worst fire seasons on record took place in the last six years
Today, the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) published the latest edition of its Annual Report on Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in 2021. It concludes that last year’s fire season was the second worst in the EU territory in terms of burnt area (since records began in 2006), after 2017 when over […]
EU solidarity with Slovenia in combating wildfires
20 June, Slovenia requested assistance to tackle unprecedented forest fires in the Karst of Gorica region of the Miren Kostanjevica municipality. Various firefighting assets have been already deployed or are on their way to help the local responders. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism is providing Slovenia with 3 firefighting helicopters, (one from Austria, one from […]
Forest fires: EU mobilises its firefighting fleet to help Portugal
Portugal has activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to request emergency assistance for the current wildfires in the central part of the country. In an immediate response, the European Commission has mobilised this morning 2 Canadair firefighting airplanes from its rescEU fleet positioned in Spain. The planes are supporting Portuguese first responders in the affected […]
Commission report on forest fires: climate change is more noticeable every year
Today, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the Commission presented the 21st edition of its Annual Report on Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, covering 2020. After the worst year to date in 2019, 2020 was another year in which fires burnt large areas of natural land in Europe. Despite the increased level of […]
How Australia’s wildfires affected an ocean area thousands of kilometres away
A new study shows a link between the windborne iron aerosols from Australia’s 2019-2020 wildfires deposited in the Southern Ocean and the massive algal blooms observed there, raising new questions about oceanic carbon uptake. The wildfires that devastated Australia in 2019 and 2020 burned millions of hectares of land and resulted in nearly 3 billion […]