Prolonged forest fires on various continents of the world – in America, Europe, Africa and Asia – have already destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of land. In some countries, the number of fires in 2021 exceeded the average of previous years.
According to a satellite map of NASA’s FIRMS system, fires have been recorded in many parts of the world – in much of North and South America, on the African plateau and northern Arabian Peninsula, in Europe, in particular on the Mediterranean coast, in the northern and eastern parts of the continent. Forest fires have also engulfed the coasts of India, Siberia in Russia, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Oceania and eastern Australia.
Greece
Despite the efforts being made, most of the forest fires that have been going on in Greece for 10 days now cannot be brought under control. Authorities are still working to put out 55 fires.
According to the National Space Observatory of Athens (EAA), citing satellite data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel 2, forest fires in Greece have destroyed thousands of hectares of land.
The EAA warned of the possibility of expanding fires in forested areas.
The local authorities of the island of Egriboz said that the forest fires here have been going on for seven days and have completely destroyed thousands of hectares of land, at least 1,000 houses have burned to the ground.
Russia
Strong forest fires are also raging in Russia. It has not yet been possible to locate 155 outbreaks in the country. Residents of two villages in Siberia have been completely evacuated.
Local authorities said 3,600 firefighters were involved in extinguishing the fires.
In Yakutia, work is also underway to extinguish forest fires that broke out in early July.
The President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Aysen Nikolaev instructed to facilitate access of firefighters to forest fire zones, removing obstacles in the form of fallen trees.
The Federal Forestry Agency of the Russian Federation stated that, as of August 9, work is underway to extinguish forest fires in the area of 1.793 million hectares.
The department noted that about 7,000 firefighters and hundreds of units of equipment were involved in extinguishing the fire. A total of 372 fires were extinguished in the last week.
USA
In the United States, the number of active forest fires has reached 107. Damaged about 920 thousand hectares of forest.
A strong forest fire has been going on in California for about three weeks. Authorities reported 8 missing.