How WUI fire risk-reduction applies to dense urban areas Written by Simona Dossi, Shrey Bohra, and Guillermo Rein On July 19th 2022 the London Fire Brigade experienced its busiest day since World War II assisting many incidents, including several wildfires which spread to buildings. In total 41 London properties, including houses and shops, were destroyed by fires. In July 2022, the UK reached record high temperatures. The heat wave caused a number of wildfires throughout the country: Two major incidents due to fires were declared on July 19th in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and a third on July 22nd in Surrey due […]
Written by Lucía de la Riva Ecosystems have relied on fire for millions of years to survive, and the development of human civilization has been possible thanks to fire. However, over centuries the relationship between modern societies and fire has been deteriorating, and the occurrence of extreme wildfires in the last few decades has increased the fear of this natural element. Researchers and experts agree that what might seem a threat to nature and humans, is in fact a resource to reduce the risk of having large wildfires if used wisely. Integrated Fire Management (IFM) aims at this by using […]
Written by Sarah Meier Introduction In recent years news coverage of orange-coloured skies, evacuations, and devastation caused by wildfires has become all too familiar. Even though one tends to only hear about the most calamitous and tragic of fires, every summer Southern European countries experience a large number of fires of varying degrees of seriousness (San-Miguel-Ayanz et al., 2022). These events can be highly disruptive and destructive, affecting many sectors of the economy, such as forestry and agriculture (Butry et al., 2001; Rego et al., 2013), industry and construction (Kramer et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021), and recreation and […]
