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Wildfires spark calls for more EU funds · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, first the fires. Now the money. Calls are growing
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for more European Union funds to support efforts to combat
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: wildfires raging across several countries, with more breaking out every day.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Huge blazes in France and Spain have caused unprecedented evacuations
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of tens of thousands of people. Authorities in France have
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: now allowed more than eighty thousand people to return to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: their homes, in a sign that firefighters there may finally
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: be gaining the upper hand against the flames near Bordeaux. Meanwhile,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: more and more countries are reporting out of control fires,
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  Speaker 1: including Greece, Turkey, Portugal and the UK. All right, so
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  Speaker 1: we want to go now to Dw's Rosie Birchards. She
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  Speaker 1: is close to Bordeaux in France. Rosie, it sounds like
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  Speaker 1: good news in this terrible situation that finally thousands of
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  Speaker 1: people can return to their homes. What are you hearing?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely good news for the tens of thousands of people
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  Speaker 2: who will now be able to return home, although tens
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  Speaker 2: of thousands do remain evacuated. Some of the ways officials
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  Speaker 2: have tried to tackle these fires is through kind of
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  Speaker 2: what I'm standing in now. This is known as a firebreak.
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  Speaker 2: You can see behind me here all sorts of trees
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  Speaker 2: that have been cut down. The idea here is to
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  Speaker 2: create a barrier to stop and contain these wildfires. That's
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  Speaker 2: part of the reason why the flames did not reach
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  Speaker 2: the city of Bordeaux, which was one of the big,
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  Speaker 2: big concerns here. Now that being said, you might also
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  Speaker 2: see behind me some firefighters and police officers from what's
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  Speaker 2: known as the Gendarmerie in France. They have told us
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  Speaker 2: we're not allowed to pass any further today because over
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  Speaker 2: in that direction there has been smoke rising and apparently
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  Speaker 2: we're told a fire there is now no longer under control.
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  Speaker 2: And we were able to pass through this road until
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  Speaker 2: now with our press cards, despite the fact this area
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: is evacuating, and I think that it may just be
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: a reminder of how quickly things can change, especially when
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: wins pick up these wildfires.
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  Speaker 1: They have forced the question, Rosie, is the EU is
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  Speaker 1: it earmarking enough money to help deal with these types
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  Speaker 1: of blazers.
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  Speaker 2: We put that question directly to the EU's Crisis Management Commissioner,
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  Speaker 2: and she made an appeal to member states to heed
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  Speaker 2: her call for a bigger sum of money to tackle
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  Speaker 2: crises jointly across this European Union. Now, the EU is
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: currently negotiating its next long term budget, and that call
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  Speaker 2: may be difficult to heed because member states in general,
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  Speaker 2: including Germany, are very skeptical of funneling any more funds
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  Speaker 2: to centralized the funding pot because of strained domestic budgets
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  Speaker 2: at home. But of course these kind of crises events
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  Speaker 2: do tend to really focus minds here, and scientists are
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: telling us that climate change is fueling more frequent extreme
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: weather events, and therefore that may lead member states to
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  Speaker 2: indeed heeds her call eventually and dedicate more funds to
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: this because we've seen many more of them asking for
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: help from other countries.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, so much scorched earth there that we're seeing
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  Speaker 1: in this video. The wildfire season is far from over.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: What are firefighters and the many volunteers expecting in the
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  Speaker 1: next few days and weeks.
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  Speaker 2: Priority here is definitely to stop any areas that have
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  Speaker 2: already been scorched from reigniting, But of course the wildfires
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  Speaker 2: are far beyond the borders of France. We've seen firefighters
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: lose their lives in the Greek island of Crete in
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  Speaker 2: the last few days as blazers have also been underway
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  Speaker 2: in Spain. So the wildfire season, as you said, far
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  Speaker 2: from over. We've got all of August to get through
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  Speaker 2: and still September yet, so it seems like this is
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  Speaker 2: still a long battle ahead for firefighters right.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Our correspondent Rosie Birdchhart the latest from France. Rosie, thank you.
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  Speaker 3: The EU's Commissioner for Crisis Management has called for more
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  Speaker 3: funding for efforts to combat wildfires that are raging across
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  Speaker 3: several countries, with more breaking out every day. Huge blazes
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: in France and Spain have caused unprecedented evacuations of tens
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: of thousands of people. Authorities in France have now allowed
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: more than eighty thousand people to return to their homes,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: in a sign that firefighters there may finally be gaining
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: the upper hand against the flames near Bordeaux. Meanwhile, more
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: and more countries are reporting out of control fires, including Greece, Turkey,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Portugal and the UK. DW correspondent Rosie Burchard has been
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: speaking to the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management and sent
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  Speaker 3: this report from Bordeaux.
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  Speaker 2: We're at a Bordeaux fire station and this is the crisis
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  Speaker 2: route you can see on some of these screens behind
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  Speaker 2: me here they are tracking the evolution of this wildfire
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  Speaker 2: in Jeron region and making strategic decisions about how to respond.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: These green lines here are fire breaks. Those are areas
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  Speaker 2: where trees have been felled or vegetation has been removed
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  Speaker 2: so that there's less fuel for the fire, so that
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  Speaker 2: it stops the fire. Overall, we're told is stabilizing, though
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  Speaker 2: the heat wave which Bordeaux and the surrounding Regyond region
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  Speaker 2: has been experiencing has definitely complicated firefighting efforts for those
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  Speaker 2: on the front line. So you'll also see other flags
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  Speaker 2: on this map. Those represent the other European countries which
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: have sent equipment or technical teams or firefighters to help
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  Speaker 2: France in this battle against wildfires. Now, the European Commissioner
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  Speaker 2: for Crisis Management was here and she had a message.
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  Speaker 2: She said she was very proud of this coordination work
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  Speaker 2: among different European countries, but also that more resources are needed.
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  Speaker 4: Climate change is not knocking on our door, it's there.
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  Speaker 4: We delivered in March twenty twenty five preparedness strategy addressing
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  Speaker 4: this kind of natural hazards, but all kinds of hazards
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  Speaker 4: and for that we need to have the means, and
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  Speaker 4: that's why we proposed a budget of ten point seven billion.
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  Speaker 4: I hope that member states will follow our proposal, so.
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  Speaker 2: That might be difficult because many EU member states, including Germany,
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  Speaker 2: are very skeptical overall of adding more funds to the
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  Speaker 2: EU centralized pot, especially with strained domestic budgets at home.
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  Speaker 2: Now we've seen some of these aircraft that have been
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  Speaker 2: sent from other European countries to help out here, and
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  Speaker 2: France is far from the only European state that has
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  Speaker 2: had to call on others for help. We've also seen
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  Speaker 2: wildfires raging in Spain and in Greece in recent days,
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  Speaker 2: and the expectation is that this will be a difficult summer. Remember,
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  Speaker 2: the European wildfire season is still far from over. We
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  Speaker 2: still have all of August to get through and September,
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  Speaker 2: and many fear that there may be many more battles
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  Speaker 2: ahead for firefighters, like the ones who work in this building.
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  Speaker 3: Let's bring in Francesca di Giuseppe. She is a scientist
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  Speaker 3: with the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast, one
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  Speaker 3: of the world's leading agencies for fire forecast. Modeling. Welcome
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  Speaker 3: to d w Now the fires we're seeing are the
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  Speaker 3: most devastating Blazer Spain and France have experienced in decades.
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  Speaker 3: According to your forecast, is it going to get better
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  Speaker 3: or worse?
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  Speaker 5: Well, the risk remains really high and very widespread. The
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  Speaker 5: situation is not obviously the same everywhere. Conditions has becomes
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  Speaker 5: somehow more favorable for containment in France and Spain, but
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  Speaker 5: now we see that there are concern in the eastern
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  Speaker 5: part of Europe as well. Like the medeterranean Italy gree source,
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  Speaker 5: the Balkans seems to develop a quoidgerous condition in general,
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: if we look at the long range forecast that is
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  Speaker 5: issued by is available through that IS website. Unfortunately, so
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  Speaker 5: August doesn't look very promising. So anomalous heat still persist,
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  Speaker 5: and precipitation that is less certain doesn't look to have
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  Speaker 5: those anomalies that would allow really the vegetation to recover
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  Speaker 5: from this very long drought.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're saying it doesn't look very promising in August.
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  Speaker 3: Rain is of course what one would hope for. But
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  Speaker 3: why are conditions so volatile this summer?
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  Speaker 5: Well, this summer has been really a combination of several factors.
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  Speaker 5: We have experienced very prolonged heat, very low humidity. Hot
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  Speaker 5: nights are particularly important because vegetation and that fuel are
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  Speaker 5: very to have led little opportunity to record over the amostria.
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  Speaker 5: And then, of course we had seen very strong winds
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  Speaker 5: in some cases, and these are very dangerous for wildfire
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  Speaker 5: because they change the direction of the flames or make
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  Speaker 5: very difficult for people operating on the ground. In general,
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  Speaker 5: we have also seen that they were wetter conditional in
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  Speaker 5: the year, and this seems a little bit counterintuitive, but
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  Speaker 5: they encourage vegetation grow and then this vegetation create an
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  Speaker 5: excess of beyond mass that create really the perfect storm
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  Speaker 5: when a sequence of heat waves heat and dry all
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  Speaker 5: the bond mass, creating an accumulation of fuel. Scientifically we
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  Speaker 5: call these hydrocommunotic rebound, and we are seeing this condition
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  Speaker 5: more often no Europe.
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  Speaker 3: Your approach is very data even how does the data
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  Speaker 3: un your fellow forecasters gather and to assist efforts to
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  Speaker 3: avoid or once they happen, fight fires.
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  Speaker 5: Well, we combine observation with numerical weather forecast and also
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  Speaker 5: fire model and this observation, of course are used to
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  Speaker 5: try to forecast where and when there is an announced
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  Speaker 5: risk for fires that to occur. Recently there have been
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  Speaker 5: really neovative system also through the US artificial intelligence, so
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  Speaker 5: we go beyond a little bit weather alone and we
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  Speaker 5: try to integrate those information about vegetation, for conditions, but
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  Speaker 5: also human behavior, human presence, so to try to forecast
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  Speaker 5: not just how flammable is the landscape, but also how
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: more probable is the possibility for inignition. And this of
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  Speaker 5: course is helping in terms of early warning. Early warning
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  Speaker 5: do not tell real firefighter exactly what every flame will do.
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  Speaker 5: It is more to identify where dangerous conditions developed so
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  Speaker 5: agency can preposition resources, prepare public warning or even plan evacuation.
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  Speaker 3: That was Francisca, the European Center for Medium Range Weather
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  Speaker 3: Forecast Players speaking to you today. Thank you so much.
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: Thank you