From Kola Peninsula To Finland & Sweden, Fires Spread Across The Arctic

[hatrack]

After 31 wildfires in Norrbotten in recent days, fire fighters are tired and need rest. But the danger is far from over, emergency officials warn. The dry warm weather could last for at least another week.

Lars Gyllenhaal from Luleå is one of the many who have signed up as volunteer to combat wildfires in Northern Sweden. He says all help possible is need. “The scene I’m met with is similar to photos I’ve seen of the burning Torne valley during Second World War. Then it was Hitler’s war machine that caused the fire and smoke skies. Now I’m asking myself who is the crook now?”

Gyllenhaal answers his own question: “It is probably ourselves, or more correct, humanity which has triggered the climate changes we suffer from,” he says to the Barents Observer.

EDIT

Additional to the forest areas near the border to Finland, forest fires are currently burning near Olenegorsk and Monchegorsk south of Murmansk and in the Pechenga region near the border to Norway. The largest fire on Monday, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situation, is in the forest near Alakurtti not far from the Salla border checkpoint south on the Kola Peninsula.

EDIT

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/ecology/2018/07/barents-region-fire

[WheelWalker]

1. Grim... very grim.

[NickB79]

2. Lots of black carbon and CO2 being emitted

All that ash, settling on snow and ice.

And if those fires ignite underground peatlands, they could burn indefinitely.