Climate change helps breed springtime wildfires in Spain
Firefighter Manuel Rubio had never seen a blaze like the one that raged for the past week in eastern Spain
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — In his more than a decade battling wildfires, firefighter Manuel Rubio had never seen a blaze like the one that raged for the past week in eastern Spain. Not this early in the year.
The forest fire that that broke out last Thursday near the village of Villanueva de Viver surprised Rubio and fire experts by displaying an unusual ferocity for spring, when in previous years lower temperatures helped keep fires manageable. That doesn't bode well for a country that led Europe in burned land during a record-hot 2022.
“I was expecting a fire like the ones we normally see in March, which can consume 100, 200 hectares, not the more than 4,300 hectares (11,600 acres) that this one has burned,” Rubio, 39, told The Associated Press hours before going back into the fray. “We are dealing with weather conditions appropriate for the summer and have a fire that is behaving like a summertime fire.”
The Mediterranean region is warming faster than the global average due to climate change caused by the release of greenhouse gases. The effects, European and Spanish officials agree, are already being seen in the multiple heat waves and the prolonged drought that Spain has endured over several months.
