A Forest Expert Team In Spain Fights Fire With Fire — Literally
This year, the European Union has had almost triple the average number of wildfires. NPR follows a special unit into the woods in Spain to see how they let them burn for prevention.
The biggest wildfire in 20 years in Spain's Catalonia region began on June 26, when a pile of chicken manure, baking in record high temperatures, burst into flame.
Fed by strong winds, the flames spread quickly, igniting dry brush and pine forest. In three days, the fire burned more than 16,000 acres and it took over 500 firefighters to put it out.
Fires in California and the Amazon rainforest have grabbed attention, but large areas of Europe's forests were also consumed this summer. Blazes nearly the size of the one in Catalonia tore through Spain's Canary Islands, the south of France and the Greek islands of Evia and Samos.
From January to mid-October, the European Union has had almost triple.
