Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Wildfires in Europe compared to disaster of World War Two

Transcript

Wildfires in Europe compared to disaster of World War Two · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Raging fires are swallowing Spain and France.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Was really really classies, like literally nothing left in France.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It's been described as the worst disaster since World War Two.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Gigantic blazes have already wiped out huge amount of land,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: tens of thousands of acres burnt, driven more than three
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty thousand people from their homes, and obliterated
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: hundreds of houses to ash and for crews on the ground,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: it's a race against time before another heat wave threatens
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: an inferno, the.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Big David against Goliad.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: This is Europe on fire. Hellish scenes in Spain where
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: wildfires burn out of control.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: In France, one.
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: Megablaze is just fifteen miles from the center of the
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: city of Bordeaux.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Weeks of forty degree temperatures with bone dry woodland have
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: primed Europe for an explosive fire season, prompting thousands to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: flee their homes to find safety.
• 1:29
  Speaker 6: We keep thinking about our homes, wondering what we'll find
• 1:32
  Speaker 6: when we return, will our house even still be there?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Maps showing multiple hotspots flaring across girond is a crisis
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: beginning to take shape. Already, seven six hundred acres have
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: been scorched, whole stretches of forest burning in a single sweep,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and the fire is growing.
• 2:03
  Speaker 7: Hundreds of people in southwest France have been evacuated by
• 2:06
  Speaker 7: boat to escape a fast moving wildfire. The authorities have
• 2:10
  Speaker 7: ordered everyone to leave the cap Fora peninsula on the
• 2:13
  Speaker 7: Atlantic coast.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: A new day brings more evacuations in France, including the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: entirety of the cap for A peninsula on the southwest coast.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Yesterday, we were just returning from a few hours at
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: the pool when sort of felt on my arms and
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: thought what is going on as someone having a barbecue
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: or a fire, and then looked up and it was
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: a sort of apocalyptic scene.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: French officials describe it as an xx L blaze, with
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: forty thousand people now evacuated, and while France is battling
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: its wildfires, Spain has declared a national emergency as fire
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: there burn out of control near Madrid. The president of
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the area called it the worst fire in the history
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: of the region. By the afternoon, more than two hundred
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: thousand people across France and Spain have been forced to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: leave their homes behind.
• 3:21
  Speaker 8: We repassed, We were terrified and honestly well refuse to evacuate.
• 3:27
  Speaker 8: As a former firefighter, I told myself that while I
• 3:30
  Speaker 8: might not be able to save the neighborhood all on
• 3:32
  Speaker 8: my own, I wanted to do something firstly for the
• 3:35
  Speaker 8: people here, like the elderly and the women living alone
• 3:39
  Speaker 8: who had left.
• 3:44
  Speaker 9: Blue Scotland has declared a major incident as emergency crews
• 3:48
  Speaker 9: tackle of wildfire in the curR Gons National Park, and
• 3:51
  Speaker 9: advisory ordered to evacuate the village of Neurtherybridge has now
• 3:54
  Speaker 9: been changed to compulsory. Scottish Foreig and Rescue had been
• 3:57
  Speaker 9: fighting the fire for the last ten days.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: At the weekend, the UK is now also feeling the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: heat in the Cangorms. It's the same pattern scene across Europe.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Tinder dry ground mixed with relentless heat creating the perfect
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: storm of conditions. The impact is much more contained, but
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: still felt by locals.
• 4:22
  Speaker 10: A lot of us have been really concerned that the
• 4:25
  Speaker 10: fire will reach the forest. We're used to fires, but
• 4:30
  Speaker 10: this one seems particularly row after last year's Make a Fire.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: We're all concerned for our lives.
• 4:35
  Speaker 10: We're concerned for our loved ones, We're concerned for our neighbors,
• 4:38
  Speaker 10: our neighbors.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Are almost like family because we're such a small community.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Back in mainland Europe, the fires are creeping closer to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the major cities of Bordeaux and Madrid, with locals and
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: tourists watching smoke gather on the skylines.
• 4:58
  Speaker 11: Yesterday morning, we were down at the beach and you
• 5:01
  Speaker 11: could see the smoke, A huge set of dark plume
• 5:03
  Speaker 11: of smoke bellowing out to see a huge black cloud
• 5:08
  Speaker 11: came over, a kind of black and the whole sky.
• 5:13
  Speaker 12: I put in ear plugs and I went to sleep.
• 5:16
  Speaker 12: And apparently during the night while I had in my
• 5:19
  Speaker 12: ear plugs, they evacuated the city. And when they came
• 5:24
  Speaker 12: to my home, which I'm sure that they did, I
• 5:26
  Speaker 12: didn't hear them. It is scarce, and the thing is
• 5:30
  Speaker 12: is that the main roads are on fire, so I
• 5:32
  Speaker 12: can't leave the city. All around me are thousands and
• 5:35
  Speaker 12: thousands of acres of pine trees and they're all on fire.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Unprecedented resources are deployed to calm the flames, the sign
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of just how quickly this crisis is escalating.
• 5:53
  Speaker 13: Emergency crews in France and Spain have spent the night
• 5:56
  Speaker 13: battling major wildfires, with hundreds of thousands of people.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: For some it's now been days since they had to
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: flee their home. The number of evacuees across Spain and
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: France reaches three hundred thousand. I simply level with the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: clothes on my back, I locked the door, took my
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: cat with me.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: And now we're here.
• 6:19
  Speaker 10: I never imagine I go through what I'm going through.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: No, see, it's very scary because we don't know when
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: we'll be able to return home, or even whether we'll
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: be able.
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: To return at all, or what condition will find it in.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: A large wildfire is now tearing through Italy's Gargano Peninsula,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: adding yet another front to Europe's growing crisis. The extreme
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: conditions on the ground are now feeding directly into the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: weather above.
• 6:49
  Speaker 14: When a large wildfire burns, as we're currently seeing in
• 6:52
  Speaker 14: areas of France and Spain, they release a huge amount
• 6:56
  Speaker 14: of heat. The hot air above the fire rises, taking
• 7:00
  Speaker 14: smoke and ash with it, and the water vapor in
• 7:03
  Speaker 14: the air cools and condenses into a cloud. It's become
• 7:08
  Speaker 14: a fire generated thunderstorm. Pyrocumulin nimbus. Clouds can even generate
• 7:14
  Speaker 14: their own weather. If they're powerful enough, they can produce hail,
• 7:19
  Speaker 14: rain and winds to fan the flames, and even lightning
• 7:23
  Speaker 14: that could spark further fires.
• 7:30
  Speaker 7: The French President Emmanuel Macrone will share a crisis cabinet
• 7:34
  Speaker 7: meeting today as firefighters continue to battle devastating wildfires in
• 7:38
  Speaker 7: southwestern France.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: The fire continues to spread now just nine miles from Bordeaux,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the city with a population of nearly eight hundred and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand.
• 7:51
  Speaker 15: And to the west of the city of Bordeaux Nea
• 7:53
  Speaker 15: a village called Le Temple. And as you may be
• 7:55
  Speaker 15: able to see in front of me, the fires are
• 7:57
  Speaker 15: raging in this rural area. Tams occasionally leaping into the air.
• 8:01
  Speaker 15: You're able to see them several feet into the air.
• 8:03
  Speaker 15: Thick black smoke rising as well, sticking in the back
• 8:07
  Speaker 15: of your throat. As I'm talking to you here. The
• 8:09
  Speaker 15: situation in this part of France is pretty serious. An
• 8:12
  Speaker 15: area the size of the Isle of Wight has been burnt.
• 8:15
  Speaker 15: But there's a fear things could worsen it again. We're
• 8:17
  Speaker 15: expecting temperatures again to reach the early forties degrees celsius
• 8:21
  Speaker 15: over the coming days. No rain forecast whatsoever.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Across girond At least two hundred and forty houses have
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: been destroyed.
• 8:37
  Speaker 16: It's the second time actually that we've experienced this, because
• 8:40
  Speaker 16: there were actually fires in twenty twenty two in the
• 8:43
  Speaker 16: same area which we're coming down towards the gross plage.
• 8:49
  Speaker 16: We it's terrifying. We're lucky at the moment because we
• 8:54
  Speaker 16: are in a safe zone.
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: I have decided with my part, I'm going to take
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: their kids and for the north out of rates of
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: the smoke and the pluted day or as far as
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: they can. We're lucky enough to have somewhere where we
• 9:10
  Speaker 6: can go.
• 9:12
  Speaker 8: The situation today is the most severe we have ever seen,
• 9:15
  Speaker 8: the most severe since the Second World War.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, in Spain, teams have been working tirelessly overnight to
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: tame the flames, but further east, a new fire breaks
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: out in Valencia.
• 9:35
  Speaker 17: There's no let up in the wildfires raging across parts
• 9:38
  Speaker 17: of Spain and France, with another heatwave now threatening to
• 9:41
  Speaker 17: hamper firefighting efforts and destroy more homes.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: By Tuesday, the scale of destruction becomes clearer. Drone images
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: show entire stretches of forest burned through, with firefronts running
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: for kilometers across France and Spain.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: The fire is big it's like David against Goliat last Tuesday,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: one week ago. The fire started in fifteen minutes, like
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: the fire with the wing change, and the fire went
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: like into our place, and in fifteen minutes we had
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: like to run away, and we had like ten arses,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: some dogs, a donkey, and we had to my little
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: brother with like five years old, and we had like
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: in a few minutes like to move everything.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: But the immediate concern now is the weather. Forecasts say
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: a second heat wave is building over southern Europe, set
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: to push temperatures even higher in the days ahead.
• 10:44
  Speaker 18: Tenkl almost was west of Bordeaux, towards the fire, where
• 10:48
  Speaker 18: the smoke is starting thicker.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: You can feel it on your eyes.
• 10:52
  Speaker 18: You can see teams pulling down trees in this dense woodland.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: This is a defensive measure.
• 10:58
  Speaker 18: They are trying to prevent the fire from progressing here
• 11:03
  Speaker 18: across this road towards this woodland. So the hope is
• 11:07
  Speaker 18: in what it's called a fire break, ripping down these trees.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: It limits the fire's ability to spread further.
• 11:15
  Speaker 18: But the area we are talking about is vast, and
• 11:18
  Speaker 18: as the temperatures start to rise and you can feel
• 11:21
  Speaker 18: the heat, the concern is that there are going to
• 11:24
  Speaker 18: be outbreaks once more.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: For exhausted firefighters. It means the ground will dry even
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: further and any small spark could become another major blaze.
• 11:36
  Speaker 18: Just how difficult is it to put them out because it's.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Such a big area. Yes, and it's done to us,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: especially done to us with the wind.
• 11:48
  Speaker 13: It's a huge mobilization, Like there's hundreds of people that
• 11:53
  Speaker 13: have gone from everywhere in Trance.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Where I work is.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Like one care away from the Viru.
• 11:58
  Speaker 18: I have a friend like Gabrielle, you got me earlier
• 12:01
  Speaker 18: and say it go me Okay, We'll take one ton
• 12:04
  Speaker 18: of water and we go out tamos cambiando.
• 12:07
  Speaker 8: We're turning the tide so we can start to see
• 12:10
  Speaker 8: the light at the end of the tunnel.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: And the fight.
• 12:12
  Speaker 8: Against these fires, all while remaining cautious.
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: Is a you.
• 12:18
  Speaker 15: Heat wave in Europe risks wildfire spreading in France and Spain.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Temperatures could top forty degrees.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: The fire has now blazed for days, with an area
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: four times the size of Paris burned outside Bordeaux, and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: it's now Spain's largest wildfire on record.
• 12:38
  Speaker 18: What we're looking at is called noye. It literally means drowning,
• 12:43
  Speaker 18: and what fire crews are looking to do is moisten
• 12:45
  Speaker 18: the soil, the vegetation, the tree trunks as much as possible.
• 12:49
  Speaker 18: They are trying to prevent flare ups where the fire
• 12:52
  Speaker 18: could just rignite. They're around seventeen reported in this area yesterday,
• 12:58
  Speaker 18: and with temperatures expected to peek at around forty degrees celsius,
• 13:02
  Speaker 18: there is an eagerness to prevent them further. You can
• 13:05
  Speaker 18: see just how many fire crews there are here. They've
• 13:07
  Speaker 18: come from other French cities like Marseille and Leon, and
• 13:11
  Speaker 18: there is a detectable sense of urgency because while these
• 13:15
  Speaker 18: fires are going to take a long time to go
• 13:17
  Speaker 18: out because cold, get out of the way of traffic,
• 13:20
  Speaker 18: they are very keen to try and keep things as
• 13:23
  Speaker 18: controlled as possible. So just maybe the thousands of people
• 13:27
  Speaker 18: evacuated to get back to their.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Homes, For many of those who do get to go home,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: what awaits them is uncertain.
• 13:39
  Speaker 16: Yeah, yeah, it could be.
• 13:41
  Speaker 19: I saw all the smoke from the fire and thought
• 13:44
  Speaker 19: I was going to lose my house, but then the firefighters.
• 13:52
  Speaker 19: I was incredibly lucky because the fire was right at
• 13:54
  Speaker 19: my doorstraculously.
• 14:00
  Speaker 16: I suppose it must have been my grandfather, my father
• 14:03
  Speaker 16: watching over us.
• 14:04
  Speaker 8: From heaven, who made sure the fire came.
• 14:06
  Speaker 20: In here and stopped right there.
• 14:08
  Speaker 8: So the house is a bit singed, but for now
• 14:10
  Speaker 8: it's fine.
• 14:10
  Speaker 20: It really is a miracle secure.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: The exceptional scale of the fires, fueled by the intense
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: heat waves that left forests dry, is driving calls for
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: more action against climate change.
• 14:25
  Speaker 13: The effect of climate change in what is happening today
• 14:27
  Speaker 13: in Europe is very strong. It is impossible to deny
• 14:31
  Speaker 13: it or to hide it. It's not the only thing
• 14:34
  Speaker 13: that is happening. So this is not just about climate change.
• 14:36
  Speaker 13: It's an emergency across scales and stakeholders. But climate change
• 14:41
  Speaker 13: and these intense, continuous number of heat waves that we
• 14:44
  Speaker 13: are suffering is making the forest and the vegetation a
• 14:47
  Speaker 13: level of dryness that is very unusual.
• 14:50
  Speaker 20: It was like mostly suddeness, like seeing like the region
• 14:54
  Speaker 20: have been born and raising to basically go up into flames.
• 14:57
  Speaker 20: And I mean we've known for a long times that
• 15:01
  Speaker 20: you have failures. It happens like almost every two years
• 15:04
  Speaker 20: something like that. That's something that big, A.
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: Major incident has been declared with a large fire continuing
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: to burn at Dunnage on the Suffolk Coast. Holiday parks,
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: campsites and caravan parks in the area have all been
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: evacuated by Suffolk Police.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Whilst France and Spain have been wrestling to control these wildfires.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Another breaks out in the UK, this time in Suffolk.
• 15:37
  Speaker 21: By the end, I mean when I was running around
• 15:39
  Speaker 21: that last that last bit, knocking on people's doors, the
• 15:43
  Speaker 21: smoke was so thick I could only see about five
• 15:44
  Speaker 21: ft in front of me. I was at my torch out,
• 15:46
  Speaker 21: so I was just by that point I was just
• 15:48
  Speaker 21: held out on to get out.
• 15:49
  Speaker 18: Really half eleven there was a bang on the door
• 15:53
  Speaker 18: and we were told to leave.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: No time to pick up anything, just get out straight away.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: And now Greece is being hit too, with new fires
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: breaking out across crete. The strong winds push flames towards
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: towns and holiday resorts.
• 16:07
  Speaker 13: What's frightening.
• 16:08
  Speaker 15: Yes, we could see the flames in the hills above
• 16:11
  Speaker 15: the village and the police and the firefighters were just
• 16:15
  Speaker 15: telling everybody to leave straight away.
• 16:17
  Speaker 10: But we are thankful that we are safe now.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: You know. I'm just.
• 16:23
  Speaker 14: Happy that we are still here.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: As Europe possesses the damage these wildfires raise a difficult truth.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: The continent is facing a new reality shaped by a
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: changing climate.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: Bud Bud
• 17:07
  Speaker 18: And