Extensive studies have found that large forest fires in the western US have been occurring nearly five times more often since the 1970s and 80s. Such fires are burning more than six times the land area as before, and lasting almost five times longer.
Wild fires cause hundreds of death every year and cause millions of dollars in damages. The most affected countries world wide are the United States, Australia and Russia, among European countries are Spain, Portugal and Greece with the most wild fires.
Between 2000 and 2017 most people died in Australia, Portugal and the United States, where wild fires then also affect urbanised areas. More hot and dry summers will cause ever bigger risks, also for countries that haven’t been affected until now.
