In this extremely hot summer, wildfires are raging in many countries across our continent, especially in the south. We usually blame them on climate change and extreme weather.
This is the big picture. The small picture, seen above this text, shows this reporter fighting a smaller wildfire in his native Bulgaria. This is what happened:
TV and radio broadcasts announced that 26 July was the hottest day of the month in Bulgaria and possibly of the year. Staying in the sun was a very bad idea, so we didn’t go to the beach but stayed on a terrace under the refreshing shadow of a huge fig tree.
It was late morning, and the thermometer was rising fast.
Just in front of us, agriculture workers were unloading bales of hay from a truck, stocking them in a neighbour’s yard.
I thought this was a very dangerous thing to do on such a hot day and immediately dialled 112, the European emergency number, which works well in Bulgaria. I said where I was, what I saw, and what my fears were.
However, I was told I should call this number only if there WAS a fire, not if I thought there was a risk of a fire. I was also advised to contact the local authorities, in a tone suggesting that I could just as well call my psychiatrist. My phone registered the call at 11:17.
I then dialled the municipality of Nesebar, the nearest big city, but no one picked up. As I was calling, I saw a small flame from the truck’s engine. Seconds later, the whole truck was ablaze, together with the bales of hay it was carrying.
I picked up the phone again and called 112, saying: “Dear Sirs, it’s OK, now we have a real fire.” The time was 11:28.
The fire truck took one hour to arrive, and during that dramatic hour, your humble servant fought the fire first-hand.
Water, we needed water.
In the yard of a neighbour absent from his summer house, I found a water source and a set of garden hoses. I put the hoses together and started sprinkling water as the fire approached three nearby homes.
What a miracle! Water was literally killing the fire. After one hour, I knew the three houses and the fig tree were saved.
The first lesson I learned from my experience as a dilettante firefighter is that even water from a garden hose is highly effective in controlling a big fire.
However, flying straw generated additional outbreaks of fire, sometimes at significant distances. People from the village and tourists started arriving, carrying plastic bottles of water that weren’t much help.
On my end, I controlled the fire, but in other places, large areas of land were completely scorched.
Three fire trucks turned up, but not one was carrying water.
And in the village, there is no water conduit, the state didn’t provide for that, which is why all residents pump water from the soil.
So essentially, the firemen waited until the fire died out naturally. Then a bulldozer came to kill the remaining hearth embers. The whole thing lasted eight hours.
I am, of course, astonished at how ill-equipped the authorities are to fight a wildfire, so the locals were left with no choice but to do the professionals’ job.
It’s scandalous, in the first place, that bales of easily flammable hay were being unloaded and stocked without any fire-fighting measures in place and that the truck driver didn’t even have a fire extinguisher.
Also, such activity shouldn’t take place on sweltering days, for obvious reasons. In theory, workers should refuse to work in open air at such temperatures. But how could they refuse? The stocking of the bales of hay is a private activity of the local mayor…
And mayors in Bulgaria are like feudal lords, sometimes, they are the only employer around.
This wildfire, as is probably the case with many others, was man-made in its essence, it was an accident waiting to happen, as my instinct had told me.
I’m not a psychic – the police did ask me if I was because they were puzzled how I knew before the fire broke out.
It’s not rocket science, I told them, it was just my evaluation of the clear and present risks. But in truth, it’s the authorities’ job to evaluate such risks so that we can feel safe.
Today’s edition is powered by Chemours
Fluorochemistries: building blocks of modern society
Fluorinated chemistry is critical for Europe’s green and digital transition. However, wider industry adoption of cleaner energy solutions won’t be possible without the right innovations in chemistry.
Find out more >>
The Roundup
A European Parliament draft report about online services’ addictive design paints a damning picture of the mental health consequences of excessive screen time and calls for new EU rules to address the problem.
A recently proposed universal ban on ‘forever chemicals’ in the EU would have a negative impact on pharmaceutical innovation and access to medicines, the pharmaceutical industry has warned.
NGOs are suing the European Commission for having approved France’s national plan for implementing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) despite allegedly breaching EU law – a move that French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau called a “destructive battle”.
The European Commission and international health agencies are closely monitoring a growing incidence of avian influenza in mammals. Despite the low risk, the Commission says it is prepared to act in case human-to-human transmission starts.
People on the tourist island of Rhodes fear the impact of the loss of summer trade after fires that ravaged businesses and homes. EURACTIV’s media partner, The Guardian, reports.
Germany’s federal states have agreed on proposals to improve the catalogue of eco-schemes, a new instrument under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to reward sustainable farming practices, whose take-up has so far been lower than hoped.
The European Commission opened a formal investigation on Microsoft on Thursday (27 July) over concerns the company might have bundled its collaboration product Teams with its productivity software part of the Office package.
Germany wants to ramp up export credits for climate-friendly technologies while cutting back support for polluting ones, but without phasing out public funding for fossil fuels entirely, prompting criticism by environmentalists.
The EU has given the green light to Berlin to provide €40 million in state support to construct the country’s first on-shore LNG terminal that will increase security of gas supply and is expected to operate into 2044.
The German government adopted on Wednesday (26 July) a regulation extending the scope of the country’s mandatory origin label for meat after Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir said the European Commission did not deliver on its promise for an EU-level proposal.
Look out for…
- Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides participates in informal meeting of Health Ministers organised by the Spanish Council Presidency in Las Palmas on Friday.
- Informal meeting of competitiveness ministers on Thursday-Friday.
Views are the author’s
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/ Alice Taylor ]
Source: euractiv.com
