Two people are dead after Tuesday's forest fire in the extreme heat of Spain.
Now experts are sounding the alarm about a new generation of forest fires - with explosive speeds and energy that create their own storms.
- It's astonishing, says forest fire researcher Anders Granström.
Ten miles west of Barcelona, rain clouds towered like no one had seen them before.
They were pitch black and looked like they were rising from the ground itself.
But it was not the gates of hell that opened, but the symptoms of a new type of inferno, fueled by extreme heat, that have shocked the normally sober fire experts in Spain.
“This is a dramatic warning of the new normal. We must adapt to fires that spread at an incredible speed,” Luis Berbiela, who works for the Pau Costa fire prevention foundation in Catalonia, told El Pais.
West of Barcelona
The fire broke out on Tuesday evening in Lleida, 130 kilometers west of Barcelona.
In just 30 minutes, the fire reached extreme speeds and developed such explosive energy that it created its own weather system that fueled the fire.
Between 6:10 p.m. and 6:40 p.m., experts say the fire created winds that caused the fire to rush uncontrollably at 28 kilometers per hour, or 455 meters per minute, which is the measure used to measure forest fires.
That is four times faster than what is normally classified as a fast-moving fire.
According to local authorities, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the speed of the fire was up to 28 kilometers per hour, which is one of the highest ever measured in Europe.
Two people did not manage to escape the fire, and have been confirmed dead by the rescue services in Catalonia.
– That is an astonishing figure. Really high-intensity fires that have been measured in Canada can reach up to 1-200 meters per minute. But you have to take that with a pinch of salt until you know what kind of measuring material they have, but it is guaranteed that they had an extremely fast fire spread, says Anders Granström, who researches forest fires at the University of Agricultural Sciences.
Massive smoke and steam
Above the fire, the black so-called pyrocumulus clouds formed in a short time, stretching 14 kilometers up, driven by massive smoke and steam from the fire inferno, reports El Pais.
Spanish experts classify Tuesday's fire as a "sixth generation fire", a new type of extreme fire that creates its own weather, which in turn increases its spread.
- These are fires that generate
we cannot predict, says Edgar Nebot, a forest engineer and task force leader at GRAF, the special force for forest fires in Catalonia.
The explanation for the explosive course of the fire is several factors, mainly the extreme heat, dry conditions and enormous amounts of dry grain ready to be harvested.
- The landscape is extremely vulnerable right now. There are tons of dry airy fuel, Nebot tells El Pais.
Clouds driven by fire
When the hot air rises into the atmosphere and cools, pyrocumulus clouds are created, fire-driven rain and storm clouds.
The cooled air collapses down and creates strong gusts of wind that drive the fire.
The course of events was so aggressive that firefighters were forced to retreat to escape.
Several communities with approximately 20,000 inhabitants were threatened for a short period before the fire was under control.
The fire devoured 55 square kilometers and left wounded agricultural communities behind.
Sweden spared
Anders Granström compares it to the large forest fire in Västmanland in 2014, which he studied on site.
– During the fire in Västmanland, a pyrocumulus cloud was established on the last day, which was the worst day. There I documented speeds of 80 meters per minute, which is extreme in itself, he says.
In his research, there does not appear to be any imminent danger of frequently recurring extreme fires in Sweden.
– Forest fires are fundamentally climate-controlled, and then there are a lot of other factors. Climate modeling indicates, above all, that southeast Sweden is heading towards more risk days. These are the driest parts of Sweden, but I haven't seen any dramatic forecasts, says Granström, adding:
- The most important thing is to maintain effective fire protection. You could say that's the case today.
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