In Spain, the first forest fire of 2023 broke out in the regions of Valencia and Aragon, burning more than 4,000 hectares of forest.
It was eliminated by more than 500 firefighters with the involvement of 20 airplanes and helicopters, EURACTIV reports.
The article emphasized that 1,700 local residents had to be evacuated due to the fire.
According to the local police, the fire may have started due to a spark from a machine used to collect brush. The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
The president of the Valencia region, Ximo Puch, said that the intensity of the fire was due to summer temperatures of around 30°C and an extremely dry winter.
It is noted that due to weather conditions, there are risks that the large-scale forest fires of 2022 may be repeated. According to forecasts of the meteorological agency AEMET, the weather will be drier and hotter along the northeastern coast of Spain this spring.
The article emphasized that in 2022, about 785,000 hectares of forest will burn in Europe. According to the statistics of the European Commission, this figure is twice the average annual figure for the last 16 years. In Spain, 493 fires destroyed a record 307,000 hectares of land.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in June 2022, a wave of abnormal heat in Europe, in some places over +40°C, and strong winds caused large-scale fires on the continent, due to which hundreds of people were evacuated.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the UN Global Panel of Climate Scientists (IPCC) has confirmed that climate change is making heat hotter and more frequent in most land regions of the world.
