The number of forest fires in Hungary has increased
The heat and extreme drought in Hungary cause many more outdoor fires than usual. The size of the burnt area is already close to 50 thousand hectares, which is ten times more than what was experienced in the same period last year.
The situation poses a serious challenge to firefighters:
“We are alerted to an average of one hundred outdoor fires every day. The extent of one open-air fire is 100-200 hectares, and we even had an open-air fire of 700 hectares. Firefighters have been fighting the flames for 5-6 days. Extinguishing a larger fire requires the presence of up to a hundred firefighters, and 20-30 vehicles are needed on the scene,” said Dániel Mukics, spokesperson of the National Directorate General of Disaster Management.
Humans are 99 percent responsible
99 percent of outdoor fires are caused by human activity. There is a current fire ban in force in the country, which applies to forests and wooded areas within a radius of 200 meters. However, this does not mean that everyone can shoot where I hold it without any problems. According to Dániel Mukics, we can all do something to reduce the problem:
“It is possible to incinerate green waste in around 80 percent of Hungary’s settlements. I ask everyone not to use this right now, in this very dry and hot weather. Also, everyone has the opportunity to grill and have a potluck on their own property. Here, too, I would like to ask that we preferably not do it during this period, but if we do have a garden party, then we do not leave the working grill or the fire alone for a single second, because it was not an outdoor fire that started, that the kettle was left alone, it was left alone the grill and the wind picked up,” explained the spokesperson, who said that the amount of rain experienced in recent days is not enough to significantly reduce the risk of fires.
Dániel Mukics then gave further advice on how to prevent fires:
“Let’s not leave garbage in nature, because metal, glass and plastic waste can collect the sun’s rays like a magnifying glass, and they can cause fires. Also, pay attention to the fact that if you park your car in a dry, grassy area, do not run the car’s engine, because even the heat from the exhaust can ignite the vegetation. You have to be very careful during agricultural work, as outdoor fires can also occur during crop harvesting. It is important that people do not smoke next to grain fields or in the driver’s cab of the work image. Agricultural machines have to be cleaned from time to time, the plant debris piled on them during harvesting has to be removed, because the rotating, heating parts can ignite this very easily, and then a multi-million-dollar machine and the entire grain table.”
In other parts of Europe, forest fires are also becoming more common due to global warming and extreme drought. The European Union Earth Observation Programme according to Spain, France, Italy and the southern parts of Greece, the danger of fires is currently extremely high, as well as in some parts of the Hungarian Great Plain.