Experts say fire-ravaged forests must be replanted and managed differently to avoid future blazes
Vast swathes of fire-ravaged pine forest must be replanted and managed differently to avoid future blazes fuelled by global heating, French experts have said, as wildfires – several caused by arson – continued to burn across France and Spain.Officials in the south-west Gironde département said on Monday that two huge fires – one at La Teste-de-Buch that destroyed 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of forest, and another at Landiras that ravaged 13,800 hectares – were both under control, although still burning.“After 12 days of ferocious fighting, both fires have been mastered,” regional government official Fabienne Buccio said. She warned, however, that rising temperatures and winds meant some hotspots would inevitably flare up again.More than 36,000 people evacuated since the start of the Gironde fires on 12 July have almost all been able to return home. However, a new blaze near Uzès in the southern Gard département had destroyed 40 hectares of land since Sunday, officials said.
In Brittany, police on Monday opened a formal investigation after declaring that two fires that have burned through nearly 2,000 hectares of heathland in the Monts d’Arrée area were both “certainly” caused by arson, with ignition points at regular 30-metre intervals.
Several wildfires – some of them also apparently started deliberately – continue to burn across Spain, meanwhile, which is estimated to have lost almost 200,000 hectares to flames so far this year.
Firefighters on the Canary island of Tenerife are battling a blaze with a 30 mile (27km) perimeter that has torn through 2,700 hectares over the past few days, with their task complicated by adverse weather conditions including very high temperatures.
On Sunday, officers from the Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, arrested a man suspected of starting three blazes. The president of Castilla y León, one of the worst affected regions, also said fires there seemed to have been set on purpose.
“I’ve just spoken to the interior minister and informed him that the hand of man is behind the three new blazes in Castilla y León,” Alfonso Fernández Mañueco tweeted on Sunday night. “I want those responsible to end up in court.”
The regional environment minister of Castilla y León – where the fires have already claimed the life of a firefighter and farmer – triggered an angry backlash on Monday after suggesting that “environmental fashions” may have contributed to the blazes.
Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones told Cadena Ser radio that while both the landscape and farming practices had changed, “certain new environmental fashions when it comes to clearing riverbanks and other things make it harder to clear the mountains”.
Asked whether he was saying environmentalism had aggravated the fires, the minister said: “It’s not the cause. But it is one of the things we need to work on … we’re all responsible for the forests.”