do we have to get used to the mega-fires that are raging this summer in Europe?

In recent days, fires have ravaged Greece, Portugal and, of course, France and its pine forest in Gironde. These giant fires are expected to multiply in the years to come. More threatening, more widespread, they consumed 44,000 hectares in Portugal, leaving a landscape blackened by ashes. In the small Greek seaside resort of Vatera, tourists and residents had to be evacuated. The fire encircles the city and the thermometer reads more than 42°C.

With very high temperatures early in the season, these large-scale fires will be more and more numerous in Europe. “This type of fire could develop more regularly, with drier, much more reactive vegetation and therefore much more intense fires, with a behavior that becomes difficult to contain for the fire-fighting services.“, explains Jullien Ruffault, researcher at INRAE.