Fires and drought

Updated: Mon, 12 Nov 2018

South African firefighter battles Cape Town blazes and inequality

Slee Mbhele signed up to fight wildfires that engulfed her beloved nature reserves. Now she fears for informal settlements close to vegetation as fires become more widespread

Climate change turned this Italian car mechanic into a firefighter
As forest fires ravage Italy amid record temperatures, a firefighter from Sardinia tells of how his work changed over the past decade By Umberto Bacchi | Mon, 23 Aug 2021
Climate change fuels more ‘fire-prone’ days beyond U.S. West coast
California and the Pacific Northwest have attracted much of the attention during the 2021 wildfire season, but climate change-fueled fire risk is encroaching much farther east, researchers say By David Sherfinski | Wed, 25 Aug 2021
Australia's female 'firies' - fighting flames and stereotypes
For generations, women in Katherine Robinson-Williams’ family have fought fires. But climate change has her fearing for her daughter’s future. By Seb Starcevic | Thu, 19 Aug 2021
interview ‘Learn to live with fire’: a Californian firefighter’s plea
As the Dixie fire rages across California, local firefighter Will Harling believes an indigenous practice of controlled burns can protect the land By Avi Asher-Schapiro | Wed, 18 Aug 2021
interview A firefighter confronts Siberia's wildfires: 'We had to surrender'
For the first time in 23 years, Grigory Kuksin's firefighting operation must allow blazes in Russia to engulf entire forests By Angelina Davydova | Thu, 12 Aug 2021
Mega-blazes put spotlight on Europe's firefighting tactics
Disaster experts call for a pivot to prevention techniques to staunch wildfires scorching in Greece, Italy and Algeria, but former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said a unit which used them was scrapped in austerity measures By Arthur Neslen | Fri, 13 Aug 2021
'Just another low-paying job' say overtaxed U.S. firefighters
As climate change drives worsening U.S. wildfires, federal firefighters say they are underpaid - and some are leaving By Avi Asher-Schapiro and David Sherfinski | Wed, 14 Jul 2021
Catching fire: AI helps scarce firefighters better predict blazes
With climate change driving worsening U.S. wildfires, machine learning and statistical models let firefighters map out ahead of time how and where blazes might spread By Avi Asher-Schapiro | Thu, 22 Jul 2021
Forest fire smoke threatens COVID-recovering Amazon communities
As Brazil’s Amazon fire season approaches, residents and doctors fear smoke could drive a health emergency among people with breathing ability damaged by COVID-19 By Fabio Teixeira | Wed, 16 Jun 2021
Nepal chokes on smoke and ash as drought-worsened wildfires rage
Communities are counting their losses as large swathes of Nepal and some northern parts of neighbouring India continue to burn By Aadesh Subedi | Tue, 13 Apr 2021
analysis Kindled by 2015 fires, Indonesia thinks big on forest protection
The Southeast Asia haze crisis pushed Jakarta to adopt a more joined-up conservation approach to reduce land clearing and the risk of fires, with deforestation now declining for four years in a row By Michael Taylor | Fri, 30 Apr 2021
Struck by Amazon fires, Brazilians want environmental protection
A survey finds Brazilians are increasingly worried about climate change and environmental issues By Meghie Rodrigues | Fri, 5 Feb 2021
Western U.S. wildfires cost insurers up to $13 billion in 2020
As climate change brings hotter and drier conditions, losses from wildfires are surging, risk management experts say By Matthew Lavietes | Tue, 15 Dec 2020
As Amazon blazes surge, firefighting proves a challenge
In Brazil's Amazon, capacity is lacking to battle growing numbers of runaway wildfires By Lucas Landau | Wed, 4 Nov 2020
Amazon losses help drive growing wildfires elsewhere in Brazil
As destruction of the Amazon continues, it threatens to cut off the "flying rivers" of water vapour that bring reliable rain further south By Fabio Zuker | Wed, 30 Sep 2020
Wealthy Californians hunt for private firefighters as state burns
With public firefighting resources now stretched to the limit, wealthy Californians are buying themselves an added layer of protection By Avi Asher-Schapiro | Fri, 28 Aug 2020
Up in smoke? Argentina delta blaze sparks worry - and legal action
Smoke from fires roaring through a vast drought-dried wetland area has reached Buenos Aires, spurring a lawsuit and legislative action By Marcela Valente | Tue, 11 Aug 2020
'It burned everything': Fires surge on Brazil indigenous land
Fires are growing not just in the Amazon but in other indigenous territories as well, a new report says By Mauricio Angelo | Wed, 30 Sep 2020
In virus-hit Amazon, fire season threatens overtaxed health system
Smoke from Amazon fires drove more than 2,000 hospitalizations last year - and this year beds are already full with COVID-19 patients, health experts say By Fabio Zuker | Wed, 26 Aug 2020
Australia bushfires show clear climate-change fingerprint
New research warns wildfires may create unmanageable risks as temperatures continue to rise By Laurie Goering | Thu, 5 Mar 2020
As wildfires worsen, firefighters go high-tech to stay healthy
Tech giant IBM is helping test and roll out a low-cost device to monitor health risks for firefighters, developed by volunteers in Spain, as the threat of wildfires grows worldwide By Megan Rowling | Wed, 26 Feb 2020
analysis Burned by wildfire losses, insurance industry rethinks risks
Maintaining coverage as wildfires grow fiercer and more frequent will require lowering risks and finding new ways to fund policies for the most vulnerable, insurers say By Laurie Goering | Wed, 22 Jan 2020
analysis Scientists paint Australia fires as red alert on climate change
"The scale of this disaster is something I couldn't have imagined, and it's the same for a lot of people in Australia," says one climate scientist By Laurie Goering | Sat, 11 Jan 2020
Wildfire-hit countries in need of new strategies to tame threat
"If this is the 'new normal', then tweaking well-established approaches to risk management of wildfires will not make any difference," says science advisor By Laurie Goering | Thu, 16 Jan 2020

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