EU wildfires burn over 1 million hectares, record emissions

Wildfires scorching large swaths of Europe this summer have burned more than 1 million hectares across the European Union, released an estimated 38.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and produced some of the most extreme fire behavior scientists have recorded, officials and researchers said. The blazes, most intense in the Iberian Peninsula and the eastern Mediterranean in June through August, have killed scores of people, forced tens of thousands to evacuate and disrupted infrastructure as firefighting resources were stretched to the limit.

Data from the European Forest Fire Information System show the area burned across the EU is more than four times last year and more than double the 20 year average for the same period. The resulting emissions exceed the annual CO2 output of some countries, with Spain and Portugal accounting for roughly two thirds of the EU total. In the eastern Mediterranean, fires in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus burned more than 1 million hectares across the region and led to at least 20 deaths and roughly 80,000 evacuations, researchers reported. Officials in the Iberian Peninsula have reported between seven and eight fatalities in August related to the...