MEA CULPA
Greece wildfires: PM admits mistakes were made
Greece's prime minister says more could have been done to prepare for this year's devastating fire season.
Greek authorities are scrutinizing the management of the devastating wildfires
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that despite a good level of preparation for the fire season, efforts still fell short.
Addressing a parliamentary debate on the management of the wildfires, Mitsotakis said: "We had prepared well. But not well enough to deal with this phenomenon."
The prime minister said government would closely review its response in order to identify problem areas that could be corrected.
Mitsotakis told lawmakers there was a greater need for more firefighting aircraft, and that an authority would be established to help better coordinate emergency teams in future. He added that the early warning text message system had contributed to limiting casualties.
Climate change a key concern
In August, Greece recorded its hottest temperatures since 1987.
Mitsotakis said that in the first few days of the month, emergency services were called up to manage nearly 1,300 wildfires.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said there is a need for more firefighting aircraft and better coordination
Around 60 fires were burning every day, with deliberate acts of arson seen in many instances.
The prime minister said the emergency showed a need for a radical shift to tackle global warming.
Dealing with the crisis "is forcing us to change everything; the way we produce agricultural products, how we move around, how we generate energy and the way we build our homes," he told the parliament.
Watch video04:03
Greece wildfires: Residents return to cinders
A summer of devastation
The fires have devastated large tracts of forests, land and homes. The island of Evia, and parts of the Peloponnese were among the areas worst hit.
An aid package of €500 million ($587 million) has been approved to help some of the worst affected areas. The prime minister said that all those who had been affected would receive help to rebuild their homes.
Mitsotakis also thanked the multinational response involving 23 countries, including Germany.
On Monday, firefighters were sent to tackle a blaze in the southern part of Evia, which they managed to contain after a few hours.
kb/nm (dpa, Reuters)
Greece wildfires: PM admits mistakes were made
Greece's prime minister says more could have been done to prepare for this year's devastating fire season.
Greek authorities are scrutinizing the management of the devastating wildfires
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that despite a good level of preparation for the fire season, efforts still fell short.
Addressing a parliamentary debate on the management of the wildfires, Mitsotakis said: "We had prepared well. But not well enough to deal with this phenomenon."
The prime minister said government would closely review its response in order to identify problem areas that could be corrected.
Mitsotakis told lawmakers there was a greater need for more firefighting aircraft, and that an authority would be established to help better coordinate emergency teams in future. He added that the early warning text message system had contributed to limiting casualties.
Climate change a key concern
In August, Greece recorded its hottest temperatures since 1987.
Mitsotakis said that in the first few days of the month, emergency services were called up to manage nearly 1,300 wildfires.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said there is a need for more firefighting aircraft and better coordination
Around 60 fires were burning every day, with deliberate acts of arson seen in many instances.
The prime minister said the emergency showed a need for a radical shift to tackle global warming.
Dealing with the crisis "is forcing us to change everything; the way we produce agricultural products, how we move around, how we generate energy and the way we build our homes," he told the parliament.
Watch video04:03
Greece wildfires: Residents return to cinders
A summer of devastation
The fires have devastated large tracts of forests, land and homes. The island of Evia, and parts of the Peloponnese were among the areas worst hit.
An aid package of €500 million ($587 million) has been approved to help some of the worst affected areas. The prime minister said that all those who had been affected would receive help to rebuild their homes.
Mitsotakis also thanked the multinational response involving 23 countries, including Germany.
On Monday, firefighters were sent to tackle a blaze in the southern part of Evia, which they managed to contain after a few hours.
kb/nm (dpa, Reuters)
Wildfires in Russia spread to central regions
Issued on: 25/08/2021 -
Issued on: 25/08/2021 -
Wildfires have ravaged Sibria this summer
Dimitar DILKOFF AFP/File
Moscow (AFP)
Russia's central regions on Wednesday battled "extreme" wildfires fuelled by an unusual heatwave that comes after forest fires linked to climate change ravaged Siberia for most of the summer.
Authorities were fighting 15 wildfires in the Urals region of Sverdlovsk, the emergencies ministry said.
The region -- which lies on the border of Europe and Asia -- faced "extreme fire hazard" due to a heatwave, it added.
Images on social media Tuesday showed flames on either side of a federal highway between regional capital Yekaterinburg and the Urals city of Perm, forcing the road shut for most of the day, according to reports.
Fires had meanwhile grown so intense in Mordovia, a region southeast of Moscow, that firefighters were forced to escape from a "ring of fire", the ministry said Wednesday.
And in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, nine planes provided by the emergencies ministry, the defence ministry and the Russian National Guard had dropped 129 tonnes of water onto a large wildfire spreading to neighbouring Mordovia.
Authorities had deployed 1,200 firefighters to put out the blaze, the emergencies ministry said.
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to protect the country's forests, saying the nation must learn from the "unprecedented" wildfires that engulfed swathes of Siberia.
In the country's largest and coldest region of Yakutia, fires have burned through an area larger than Portugal.
The emergencies ministry said Wednesday that there were 50 forest fires now buring in the region.
Officials in hard-hit regions have called for resources and economic support from Moscow to deal with the damage.
Experts blame the huge fires that have ripped across Russia's vast territory in recent years on climate change, negligence and underfunded forestry management services.
Russia's forestry agency says fires this year have torn through more than 173,000 square kilometres (67,000 square miles), making it the second-worst season since the turn of the century.
A former sceptic of man-made climate change, Putin has called on authorities to do everything possible to help Russians affected by the gigantic fires.
© 2021 AFP
Moscow (AFP)
Russia's central regions on Wednesday battled "extreme" wildfires fuelled by an unusual heatwave that comes after forest fires linked to climate change ravaged Siberia for most of the summer.
Authorities were fighting 15 wildfires in the Urals region of Sverdlovsk, the emergencies ministry said.
The region -- which lies on the border of Europe and Asia -- faced "extreme fire hazard" due to a heatwave, it added.
Images on social media Tuesday showed flames on either side of a federal highway between regional capital Yekaterinburg and the Urals city of Perm, forcing the road shut for most of the day, according to reports.
Fires had meanwhile grown so intense in Mordovia, a region southeast of Moscow, that firefighters were forced to escape from a "ring of fire", the ministry said Wednesday.
And in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, nine planes provided by the emergencies ministry, the defence ministry and the Russian National Guard had dropped 129 tonnes of water onto a large wildfire spreading to neighbouring Mordovia.
Authorities had deployed 1,200 firefighters to put out the blaze, the emergencies ministry said.
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to protect the country's forests, saying the nation must learn from the "unprecedented" wildfires that engulfed swathes of Siberia.
In the country's largest and coldest region of Yakutia, fires have burned through an area larger than Portugal.
The emergencies ministry said Wednesday that there were 50 forest fires now buring in the region.
Officials in hard-hit regions have called for resources and economic support from Moscow to deal with the damage.
Experts blame the huge fires that have ripped across Russia's vast territory in recent years on climate change, negligence and underfunded forestry management services.
Russia's forestry agency says fires this year have torn through more than 173,000 square kilometres (67,000 square miles), making it the second-worst season since the turn of the century.
A former sceptic of man-made climate change, Putin has called on authorities to do everything possible to help Russians affected by the gigantic fires.
© 2021 AFP
Provence wine producers weigh up losses after deadly wildfires in France
Issued on: 24/08/2021 -
Losses of up to €2 million
Winemaker Pierre Audemar lost all his equipment and half of his grape harvest to the flames.
“It’s not possible,” he told France Info television three days after the fire, gazing at the charred remains of his Domaine de la Giscle winery and the stock of 2019 wine stacked up in metal crates now burned to a cinder.
He hopes insurance will cover the economic blow of between “1.5 million and 2 million euros”.
Harvest blues
Paul Giraud also lost all his farming equipment and property. His 25 hectares of vines produce red, white and rosé Côtes de Provence in the hills behind Saint-Tropez,
"I no longer have a grape harvesting machine, a backhoe, a loader for the vineyard, a motor mower. Everything has been burnt," he told France Info.
“I’m a wreck, completely confused,” the 70-year-old said, looking around aimlessly in his La Tourre estate in the hills of the Massif des Maures.
“We harvest at the beginning of September. How am I going to manage? I have nothing left."
World's rich and famous converge on France's rosé vineyards in Provence
Even winegrowers who were fortunate not to lose their estates are concerned that the proximity of the fires will have tainted their grapes with smoke.
"We are only a few days away from the harvest, which is bound to be damaged,” said Guillaume de Chevron Villette, owner of the Reillanne winery.
“We produce a quality rosé wine, so the challenge will surely be to eliminate the risk of a burnt taste in the wine," he told AFP.
A protected area
This part of southeastern France has regular droughts, strong winds and is densely populated, making it particularly at risk from wildfires.
There is also a “lack of maintenance around the plots,” said Chevron Villette. “As we’re in a protected area, we can’t clear the bush”.
The Massif des Maures has been designated a protected area because it is the natural habitat of the rare Hermann’s tortoise.
The National Federation of Agricultural Workers’ Unions (FNSEA) said in a statement that in view of climate change it was "urgent to reconsider the ways we preserve biodiversity in areas like this, which are particularly vulnerable to fire”.
Can French wine survive the climate change fiasco?
Some winegrowers are now asking for a change in regulations so that landowners near protected forest areas be allowed to clear bushes and create firebreaks.
"We want at the very least to be able to plant vines in the bushes to stop the spread of ashes,” said Benoît Ab-der-Halden, director of Chevron Villet, which represents 14 vineyards in Le Var.
Up to 5 years for next crop
In the meantime, the worst-hit winegrowers will have to wait several years before their next crop of rosé grapes can be harvested.
“When you lose a vineyard you have to leave the ground to rest, then replant,” says Pastorelli. With three years for the vine to start producing again, it will take "five years in all to produce Côtes de Provence wine".
Frost that devastated French vineyards linked to climate change
Fire is only the latest disaster to strike French wine producers.
In April, heavy frosts destroyed buds on vines in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Languedoc and the Rhône valley.
Deemed a natural disaster, the French government promised the affected farmers and winemakers one billion euros in aid.
Issued on: 24/08/2021 -
Winegrower Pierre Audemard lost half his vines and all of his outbuildings and wine stocks in the wildfires
© Screengrab France 2 Marseille
Text by: Alison Hird with RFI
Text by: Alison Hird with RFI
Winemakers in southeastern France who lost vines and equipment in recent wildfires are devastated as prospects of harvesting grapes for the popular rosé wine go up in smoke.
Wildfires that swept across the hilly region close to the French Riviera are now under control, firefighters said on Monday.
The blaze claimed two lives and scorched more than 7,000 hectares of land.
Some 5,000ha were lost in the Var region, which produces the Côtes de Provence rosé wine that is particularly popular in the United States.
Two hundred of the region’s 4,000 producers are believed to have been badly affected.
“We estimate around 1,000 hectares of vineyards have been affected in the Côte de Provence area,” Eric Pastorino, president of Provence's wine producers' association, the CIVP, told RFI.
Wildfires that swept across the hilly region close to the French Riviera are now under control, firefighters said on Monday.
The blaze claimed two lives and scorched more than 7,000 hectares of land.
Some 5,000ha were lost in the Var region, which produces the Côtes de Provence rosé wine that is particularly popular in the United States.
Two hundred of the region’s 4,000 producers are believed to have been badly affected.
“We estimate around 1,000 hectares of vineyards have been affected in the Côte de Provence area,” Eric Pastorino, president of Provence's wine producers' association, the CIVP, told RFI.
Losses of up to €2 million
Winemaker Pierre Audemar lost all his equipment and half of his grape harvest to the flames.
“It’s not possible,” he told France Info television three days after the fire, gazing at the charred remains of his Domaine de la Giscle winery and the stock of 2019 wine stacked up in metal crates now burned to a cinder.
He hopes insurance will cover the economic blow of between “1.5 million and 2 million euros”.
Harvest blues
Paul Giraud also lost all his farming equipment and property. His 25 hectares of vines produce red, white and rosé Côtes de Provence in the hills behind Saint-Tropez,
"I no longer have a grape harvesting machine, a backhoe, a loader for the vineyard, a motor mower. Everything has been burnt," he told France Info.
“I’m a wreck, completely confused,” the 70-year-old said, looking around aimlessly in his La Tourre estate in the hills of the Massif des Maures.
“We harvest at the beginning of September. How am I going to manage? I have nothing left."
World's rich and famous converge on France's rosé vineyards in Provence
Even winegrowers who were fortunate not to lose their estates are concerned that the proximity of the fires will have tainted their grapes with smoke.
"We are only a few days away from the harvest, which is bound to be damaged,” said Guillaume de Chevron Villette, owner of the Reillanne winery.
“We produce a quality rosé wine, so the challenge will surely be to eliminate the risk of a burnt taste in the wine," he told AFP.
An estimated 1,000 hectares of vineyards have been damaged in fires in the Var region, where the much-prized Cotes de Provence rosé wine is produced.
© Screengrab France 2 Marseille
A protected area
This part of southeastern France has regular droughts, strong winds and is densely populated, making it particularly at risk from wildfires.
There is also a “lack of maintenance around the plots,” said Chevron Villette. “As we’re in a protected area, we can’t clear the bush”.
The Massif des Maures has been designated a protected area because it is the natural habitat of the rare Hermann’s tortoise.
The National Federation of Agricultural Workers’ Unions (FNSEA) said in a statement that in view of climate change it was "urgent to reconsider the ways we preserve biodiversity in areas like this, which are particularly vulnerable to fire”.
Can French wine survive the climate change fiasco?
Some winegrowers are now asking for a change in regulations so that landowners near protected forest areas be allowed to clear bushes and create firebreaks.
"We want at the very least to be able to plant vines in the bushes to stop the spread of ashes,” said Benoît Ab-der-Halden, director of Chevron Villet, which represents 14 vineyards in Le Var.
Up to 5 years for next crop
In the meantime, the worst-hit winegrowers will have to wait several years before their next crop of rosé grapes can be harvested.
“When you lose a vineyard you have to leave the ground to rest, then replant,” says Pastorelli. With three years for the vine to start producing again, it will take "five years in all to produce Côtes de Provence wine".
Frost that devastated French vineyards linked to climate change
Fire is only the latest disaster to strike French wine producers.
In April, heavy frosts destroyed buds on vines in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Languedoc and the Rhône valley.
Deemed a natural disaster, the French government promised the affected farmers and winemakers one billion euros in aid.
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