According to AFP and Spanish EFI, French and Spanish forest fires continue to get out of control, and as of July 26, about 500,000 people in both countries have been forced to evacuate.
Spain declared a national emergency last week, making it the first time in Spanish history that a mountain fire has led to a state of emergency.
On July 25, after inspecting the burning area, Prime Minister Sanchez said that in just a few days, 130,000 hectares of land in Spain had been destroyed.
The Madrid area was surrounded by wildfires, and many people around Madrid had lost contact, because the radio base station equipment had been burned by the fire, the fiber-optic lines had been melted by the high temperature, and repair personnel couldn‘t get to the scene at all due to road closures.
Yesterday, there was finally good news: the forest fires in the Sierra Oeste in Madrid did not relapse during the night, and the mountain fires in Avila Province have generally stabilized.
Madrid is preparing to lift partial evacuation orders and house control orders.
However, the so-called “general stability of the fire” is mainly due to the fact that the natural combustion stopped and there was no more burning.
On the French side, however, the fire was getting worse and worse. In the southwestern province of Gironde, 42,000 hectares of forest had already been burned. Macron rushed to the disaster area.
After listening to the field reports at the command center, Macron declared, “We‘re going to win this battle together.”
He described the fire as France‘s worst fire crisis since World War II. “The next few weeks will be difficult.”
At the height of the fire, at one point only 15 kilometers from Bordeaux, 268,000 citizens faced evacuation.
The most dangerous scene occurred on the Cape Ferrer Peninsula, where nearly 40,000 people woke up in the early hours of July 24th to find thick smoke all around them, almost within reach.
The only road was crowded with cars, the fire was not waiting for anyone, and the sea became the only escape route. Residents and tourists took two days to escape from this place by cruise ships, ferries, and merchant ships.
Beyond the Pyrenees, the situation in Spain was even more severe. Tens of thousands of people in the region of Val in the southeast needed to be evacuated, and everyone could only wait at the docks for ships, racing against time, because no one knew if the fire would come faster, or if the ships would come faster.
As for the elderly in the nursing homes and the children in the schools, they still needed others to bring them out.
This forest fire, which the European media called “Hellfire,” was not actually sudden. It had already happened on July 9, but only now that the media had focused on reporting it was widely known.
On the afternoon of July 9, wildfires engulfed the region of Los Cayardos and Bedar in Almería Province, the Andalucía, Colombia region in southern Spain…
The main reason for the fire‘s rapid development is:
The persistent heat waves since January and May have caused abundant spring rain to drive out lush vegetation and quickly dry it up. Once there is a fire, dry branches and leaves become fuel.
2. Fire prevention work flows on the surface, causing the warning mechanism to fail.
3. In windy weather, the fire quickly spreads with the help of the wind.
But the failure of fire prevention work is the main reason. Because Spanish mountain fires have been happening all these years, every fire is said to strengthen prevention, and every fire after the fire, it is the same.
On July 10, the Andalucía, Colombia region reported that wildfires had killed at least 12 people, lost contact with 19 people, and injured dozens.
Four British tourists were burned alive in a car; several others died surrounded by flames while abandoning their cars to walk.
British Reuters criticized the Spanish evacuation efforts, but Andalucía, Colombia‘s regional president, Juan Ma Moreno, explained that the rescue authorities advised residents to stay indoors for safety, but some chose to evacuate by car, taking unofficially designated evacuation routes and entering “real death traps.”
The cause of the fire is said to have been a fallen cable, igniting dry bushes.
When the Almería Province fire tragedy occurred, both Spain and Europe were paying attention to the World Cup.
On July 21, the Spanish team returned victorious, and the entire country fell into a carnival, with few people paying attention to the mood-shattering wildfires.
On July 23rd, the mountain fires around the Madrid area had become continuous, and citizens discovered that the surface of swimming pools were all floating with a layer of black ash…
Segovia in northern Madrid, La Mierla in eastern Madrid, and Toledo in southern Madrid all reported fire alarms. The “Madrid Defence War” began on the 24th.
Sanchez mobilized the forest fire brigade, the city fire brigade, the National Guard of the United States, the civil defense organization, and the Spanish military emergency force (UME) to participate in the rescue.
A large number of fire vehicles, bulldozers, fire helicopters, and fixed-winged firefighting aircraft were operating continuously day and night, continuously pouring water and spraying flame retardants into key areas.
But what about the “battlefield” outside the “Madrid Defence War”? Spain‘s firefighting resources are far from sufficient, especially the firefighting force.
Spain had already appealed to the European Union for help last week, but Von der Leyen did not consider forest fires as a priority. She still needed to hold meetings to study and coordinate this major disaster response, which required rapid decision-making, rapid deployment, and rapid action.
I wonder where the mountain fire situation ranks in her daily work? Perhaps it doesn‘t matter at all.
What does it matter to me if I close my eyes? Anyway, the fire will automatically extinguish. Isn‘t this what happens every year? Why panic?
Macron also appealed to the European Union for help, and von der Leyen responded somewhat. She said that the EU had sent five planes and two helicopters to France, and sent four planes to Spain.
On July 28th, according to Central TV News, the fires in France and Spain have joined forces to form a single fire. Currently, 60 cities have been evacuated, and fires have also appeared in Italy and Portugal.
The European Commission at this time came out to say that the speed of the mountain fire‘s spread has exceeded the emergency handling capabilities.
Isn‘t Vondeline just showing off for everyone to see?
“Yes, Minister” Humphrey said a classic line:
In the first stage, we declare that nothing happened.
In the second stage, we say that something might happen, but we shouldn‘t do anything.
In the third stage, we say that maybe we should do something, but we can‘t do anything.
Phase four, we say that maybe we should have done something earlier, but now it‘s too late.
This is simply the most accurate description of the European Union‘s working model.
Now, it‘s very difficult to extinguish the mountain fire. We can only wait for it to extinguish itself naturally, as we used to. If we can prevent it, it‘s already very successful.
On the internet, some people also tried to boast about the EU‘s operational efficiency, saying that the EU had activated the cross-border support (rescEU) mechanism, with countries such as Croatia, Portugal, Czechoslovakia, and Slovakia sending firefighting aircraft to support the two countries of France.
The so-called launch of the rescue EU refers to the European Union urgently approving 600 million euros for the purchase of 12 new firefighting aircraft, which can only be shipped in 2027. Now there‘s nothing we can do to help, and the one who‘s happy is “Commissioner Smith” of the European Union, right?
The support of firefighting aircraft from countries such as Croatia and Portugal to the two French countries is a connection between countries, belonging to the “voluntary provision of shared resources”. After the rescue operation ends, the European Union is responsible for reimbursing 75% of the costs.
In other words, Vondeline had done nothing, and in the end, he had thrown up his hands: “Exceeding emergency response capability.”
The funniest thing is, the thing she herself cares about most is how the LGBT “Pride Moon” is progressing?
On July 26, she posted on X, not about the mountain fire situation, but about the terrorist attack in Berlin, Germany (on the night of July 25, a religious extremist drove into an LGBT demonstration crowd, killing one person and injuring 29 others).
She beeped something about “hate and violence have no place in our society”, and in the end, we must unite and support LGBT…
The EU head of the family is concerned about these things all day and night, and keeps his mouth shut about the identity and background of the murderer.
There are more than 1,700 comments below, cursing her for everything.
Why are EU leaders so lax about forest fire prevention? Because no one is willing to do the difficult, complex, detailed, arduous, and unpopular work now.
Only LGBT, open immigration, drug de-criminalization… these simple and flattering “values” causes will have people happily scrambling to do them.
Prevention of wildfires is a difficult task, and can only be done by “stupid methods.”
For China, today satellite monitoring, drone monitoring, and robotics technology are all very developed, but no matter how advanced technology is, it is only monitoring and early warning.
Last month, I visited a drone company in Guangdong that produces drones specifically for monitoring natural disasters. They have not only vision, but also smell, which allows them to quickly detect and locate fires.
Once there is a warning, someone must immediately rush to the fire to deal with it, and these manpower organizations usually have to be prepared. To avoid large-scale forest fires, they still have to rely on “stupid skills” and “stupid methods.”
There are also tasks such as forest protection against fires, natural forest protection, and enhancing forest coverage, which also require human resources to do.
China also has a very responsible people‘s masses, and in August 2022, the blue light emitted by the headlamps of Chongqing volunteers, forming a long blue dragon near the yellow mountain fires, has become a classic photo.
What does Europe have, is drone monitoring technology enough? Is the number enough?
It has to buy from China, but Vondeline has to fight a trade war with China, drones must be restricted, hard air is really hard air.
Then, what about manpower? Fire prevention is commercialized and outsourced. There are only a few people watching in the key areas. As long as they meet the contract requirements, it‘s fine. As for organizing fire suppression immediately, you‘re overthinking it.
Large-scale masses spontaneously support firefighting operations, let alone think about it.
So, is there something strange about European mountain fires year after year?
How much carbon dioxide does a European forest fire produce when it burns so big and for so many days?
Previously, some European politicians were still pretending to say that air conditioning would destroy the climate. Now, should climate protection still be talked about?
How many small animals will wildfires kill?
The Animal Protection Organization could usually cry for a day over the death of a stray dog or stray cat, but now they could calmly accept the “laws of nature.” Then wouldn‘t the lives of these thousands of small animals be lives?
Vondeline‘s politicians are hypocritical to the extreme. They only know how to act, not how to work.
The European Union might as well ask a few Taoists to come to Paris to pray for rain and then throw her into the Seine as a sacrifice to the gods. That would at least be better than “surpassing emergency response ability.”
Images from the Internet