A forest fire broke out in Spain. What was the cause of the fire?
Recently, due to the high temperature weather, many areas have been affected by wildfires. Wildfires have recently broken out in Tarragona, Toledo, Avila and other places in central and northern Spain. According to statistics from the Spanish fire department, as of June 30, wildfires have burned more than 10,000 hectares of forest area.
Recently, the European continent has experienced continuous extreme hot weather, with temperatures in Spain, Germany, France, Poland and other places exceeding the highest summer temperatures on record. Affected by this, a serious fire broke out in Catalonia, Spain. Although hundreds of firefighters worked hard to put out the fire, the fire was still not under control. Officials initially analyzed that the cause of the fire was spontaneous combustion of compost caused by hot weather, and predicted that the current fire will eventually expand to 20,000 hectares. Experts say that the occurrence of extreme weather is a natural phenomenon and cannot be simply attributed to climate warming, but climate change does make extreme weather more frequent.
The province of Tarragona in the Catalonia Autonomous Region in northeastern Spain was the province most severely affected by the wildfires, with a total of about 6,000 hectares of forest burned. The fire has been burning for four days so far. More than 350 firefighters and multiple helicopters have been put out to fight the fire. The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has also sent planes to provide reinforcements.
When asked about the cause of the fire, officials said that the cause of the fire was likely to be spontaneous combustion of manure. Because the weather was too hot, many improperly managed manure burned on its own in the high temperature, producing sparks. , thus spreading into a fire. In this regard, the National Park Service also stated that spontaneous combustion occurs when combustible materials (such as piles of hay, compost or manure) are heated to a temperature high enough to cause combustion.
CNN said that this week, not only Spain was swept by a heat wave, but temperatures across Europe reached record highs and are expected to continue to rise. On the 27th, the French National Meteorological Service issued a "red" alert for four cities in the country's south. This is the first time that this level of alert has been used for high temperatures in France.