Mega-Blazes Put Spotlight on Europe's Firefighting Tactics
Voice of America
As wildfires incinerate swathes of the Mediterranean, United Nations officials and disaster experts have called for an urgent revamp of firefighting to cope with a new era of mega-blazes.
Nearly 80 people have died in fires that have swept through Algeria, Greece, Italy and Turkey, driving thousands from their homes and underscoring projections in this week's IPCC report of spiraling "fire weather conditions" by mid-century. In the new climatic era, mega-fires may erupt within minutes of ignition, said Sebastien Penzini, deputy Europe chief of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. "The evolving nature of wildfires obliges us to really change our paradigm and put more emphasis on fire prevention than suppression," he said.Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.