NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 31

Wildfire is an increasingly urgent problem
in countries around the world, including
locations historically unaccustomed to fire
on the landscape. Clockwise from top left:
watching the progress of a wildfire in Greece;
suppression activities in Sweden; wildland
firefighters in Siberia; traffic as residents flee
an approaching fire in Australia; and a recent
wildfire in Portugal. GETTY IMAGES

Wildfire is a global crisis that
demands international cooperation.
F
OR MOST OF HUMAN HISTORY, wildfire has been a
local problem with mostly local consequences. But over
the last decade, a new reality has emerged: wildfires aren't
just displacing local communities, they are affecting life on
our entire planet.
"In this new era we are in-this era of megafires and growing fire seasons, this era of climate change-no one of us can
succeed alone," then-US Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said
in a speech at the 2009 World Wildfire Congress in Argentina.
"In the century to come, success in managing wildfire will
depend on building partnerships on a global scale."
That idea is even truer today. In just the last few years, historically severe fires have besieged nations around the world,
including the United States, Canada, Australia, Greece, Spain,
Portugal, Chile, Russia, and Brazil-even regions like Greenland and Northern Europe, where wildfires have traditionally
been tame. Many of these events have required international
cooperation to battle the blazes, offer aid to affected citizens,
and provide resources and expertise for recovery.
During the historic 2020 Australian bushfires, where 47
million acres burned, firefighters from the US, New Zealand,
Canada, and Singapore pitched in; the tiny Pacific island
nation of Vanuatu pledged about $250,000 to assist victims,
and even Papua New Guinea declared it had 1,000 soldiers and
firefighters ready for deployment. People across the world sent
donations, and many knitted blankets and protective pouches
to help the estimated billions of animals who lost their homes.
International researchers pledged their expertise in helping
curtail the unfolding ecological disaster any way they could.
As the world continues to get hotter and dryer, most
experts believe that wildfires will become even more
intense in areas like Australia, California, and the Mediterranean. A recent state-sponsored inquiry into the recent

Australian fires concluded that "it is clear that we should
expect fire seasons like 2019-20, or potentially worse, to
happen again." Due to accelerating climate change, similarly dire conclusions have been reached by scientists in
Europe and North America. Recent unprecedented fires
above the Arctic Circle could exacerbate concerns even fur-

IN THE CENTURY TO COME,
SUCCESS IN MANAGING
WILDFIRE WILL DEPEND ON
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS
ON A GLOBAL SCALE.
ther; wildfires have burned vast swaths of typically frozen,
carbon-rich peat soils, releasing a record 244 megatons
of carbon into the atmosphere-more than Spain releases
from burning fossil fuels in an entire year, according to
Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), an
agency of the European Union.
As the wildfire crisis grows, so have international efforts
to fight it. Ongoing projects include research to better
understand wildfire and to train a new generation of global
experts; efforts by the United Nations to develop strategies
to enhance cooperation between nations and improve fire
management practices; and international grants, such as
the $22 million pledge last year by the G7 countries to fight
fires in the Amazon rainforest.
Whether these and similar efforts are enough to address
the crisis depend on our willingness to recognize the threat
and to act with urgency. - Jesse Roman
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020

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