The planet caught fire again this summer. From Canadian forests to tourist islands in the Mediterranean, firefighters around the world have faced sometimes dazzling flames. Millions of hectares burned and hundreds of people lost their lives. To understand the extent of the human, material and environmental damage, Le Figaro returns to maps of the events.
For four months, Canadian authorities have been fighting against flames that can make Canadian forests look like an apocalypse. As of August 24, 2023, 15.3 million hectares have been burned, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. That is an area larger than Greece or equivalent to 28% of metropolitan French territory.
These megafires are mostly located in large areas of forest. A study conducted by the scientific network World Weather Attribution showed that the low humidity levels of the forests in the east of the country had largely contributed to the rapid and uncontrollable spread of the fires.
The front of the flames can spread over several kilometres, drastically complicating the work of firefighters. To date, nearly 200,000 residents have had to be evacuated and four people have lost their lives. More than 1,000 fires are still active, the majority of which are out of control.
This summer of 2023 is therefore already the most devastating fire season in the country’s history. And for good reason, it represents more than double the previous record recorded over a full fire season. However, the authorities estimated in mid-August that the season was far from over.
On the island of Maui, the inferno of flames lasted only a few hours. But left a very deep imprint. In just 60 hours, from Tuesday August 8 in the morning to Thursday August 10 in the evening, 80% of the city of Lahaina burned down, leaving a veritable landscape of desolation.
2207 structures were damaged or entirely destroyed. 86% of them were residences, leaving the inhabitants of the former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii in the 19th century, without any fallback solutions.
Above all, the fire was the deadliest in more than a century in the United States. 115 victims have been identified, according to the latest provisional report and so far, only 27 people have been formally identified. According to the FBI, 1,100 people are also missing and a good number could add to the terrible toll.
Since August 15, the largest island of the Canary archipelago has been plagued by flames. This fire is the largest in Spain since the beginning of the year. Nearly 15,000 hectares have already been reduced to ashes. 300 firefighters and soldiers, with the reinforcement of 18 air resources, are mobilized to fight the fires.
At this point, the fire is “partially stabilized” but not yet under control. It now extends over a perimeter of around 90 kilometers and has led to the evacuation of 12,000 people. Spain had already been affected by a major fire on the island of La Palma in mid-July. Nearly 4,000 hectares had been burned and 4,000 people evacuated.
And if the fires are not always impressive in their magnitude, it is the number of hearths that can challenge. Between July and August, the Mediterranean basin suffocated under scorching heat and caught fire in places.
In mid-July, it was the Greek land that ignited. In a few days, nearly 17,700 hectares burned on the island of Rhodes and 20,000 people were evacuated in disaster. Fifteen days later, further north, Croatian firefighters fought the flames near Dubrovnik. At the same time, on the African continent, the Algerians faced a deadly fire in the northeast of the country. Between July 23 and 25, 140 fires broke out and caused the death of 34 people.
A few miles across the Mediterranean, Sicily was also ablaze. Palermo airport was forced to close for some time after three elderly people died in their home near the Sicilian city. In Haute-Corse, French firefighters had managed to control a fire that had covered some 200 hectares during the night of Tuesday July 25 to Wednesday July 26.
At the beginning of August, it was at the foot of Mount Parnès, north of Athens, that the flames started. On Wednesday August 4, the Greek capital woke up in thick smoke. On the same day, much further west, a forest fire broke out in central Portugal in the municipality of Castelo Branco and consumed 7000 hectares of forest in a few days. Simultaneously, in the south of the country, in Odemira, some 8,400 hectares have disappeared under the flames while firefighters were also fighting against fires near Ourem.
Finally, in mid-August, France experienced one of its biggest fires of the summer, in Argelès-sur-Mer, in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Before being brought under control, the flames had managed to cover 480 hectares.
At the end of August, it is in Greece that fires are multiplying. And the latter are of great concern to the authorities because they are at the gates of the Greek capital. On August 22, some 25,000 residents of a neighborhood north of Athens were evacuated as authorities found 18 migrants dead in Dadia National Park, near the border with Turkey.