Wildfires in southwest Europe are becoming harder to contain as heatwaves, dry landscapes and expanding settlements combine. Fire needs heat, oxygen and fuel, but the damage is shaped by land use and the design of neighbourhoods. Experts told Al Jazeera that some urban edges were built without enough infrastructure, water access or planning for emergency response.\n\nClimate change is intensifying the conditions that allow fires to spread, while abandoned farmland, dense vegetation and poorly connected settlements can provide additional fuel. A fire at the urban interface is different from a blaze in a remote forest and requires different evacuation, firefighting and water strategies.\n\nThe policy response must include prevention: clearing hazardous fuel, mapping vulnerable communities, improving access routes and building against extreme heat. Global Talks will report both the immediate fire situation and the planning decisions that determine exposure.
Europe’s wildfires expose a planning problem as well as a climate problem
