Wildfire in Africa: Natural Disaster

[MLSIDRIS]

Wildlife ravages northern Algeria, killing 73 and injuring hundreds. Dozens of wildfire have reportedly swept across Northern Algeria.  The fire have destroyed a large area of forest and has affected a significant number of animals,  almost 80% of the forest was lost. Natural disasters are not common in Africa such as wildfire. It occurrence in Algeria should tell Africa leaders to prepare ahead . Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

[Karl_3000]

When Europe was very hot this year which probably caused the wide fire that happened in Spain and France, sub-sahara African countries were green already at the time with heavy rain fall. If the rain has not went north enough in sub-sahara part at the time, it has reached upper part by this time which is August already. Probably enough rain has not gotten to white African countries, but which are although not tropical rain forest, but more of desserts.

The wide fire that is happening in Algeria now, no evidence that it occured naturally.

[JeromeTash]

Never heard of any wild fires in Africa in the news before. I have seen those in South America, the US and parts of Europe, but not Africa? This is surprising. If indeed it was a natural phenomenon, then something unusual is happening with our climate

Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

Ever since I started watching live news for years, I have then heard of a hurricane or tornado hitting any of the African countries. if it did, I must have missed it. Can you point out once instance where such a thing happened before?

[Franklyn-wood]

Wildlife ravages northern Algeria, killing 73 and injuring hundreds. Dozens of wildfire have reportedly swept across Northern Algeria.  The fire have destroyed a large area of forest and has affected a significant number of animals,  almost 80% of the forest was lost. Natural disasters are not common in Africa such as wildfire. It occurrence in Algeria should tell Africa leaders to prepare ahead . Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

Seeing the thread makes me feel that this things many of the African countries where only hearing with their hears have now start happening right  away. This would creat fear in the mind of most African people and must be taking care off before it will become consistently happen.
I don't really know if this is true and accurate, but it's better for the Africans to come together to prepare for it before it will strike and damage things.

[Vod]

Ever since I started watching live news for years, I have then heard of a hurricane or tornado hitting any of the African countries. if it did, I must have missed it. Can you point out once instance where such a thing happened before?

You've never heard of a hurricane striking because it has a different name - cyclone or typhoon.

Notable Tropical Cyclones That Struck Africa:

Cyclone Idai (March 2019)
Cyclone Kenneth (April 2019)
Cyclone Gati (November 2020)
Cyclone Freddy (February–March 2023)

[EluguHcman]

Never heard of any wild fires in Africa in the news before. I have seen those in South America, the US and parts of Europe, but not Africa? This is surprising. If indeed it was a natural phenomenon, then something unusual is happening with our climate

My thoughts too.  And I was thinking why OP did not include source of the information in the post.
It is also no more news about Australia, USA and Canada being prone to this nature of wildfire disasters, although some part of African countries had got similar experiences of the wildfire but are usually notable to be caused by human aided activities whereas, the fire intentionally set on the dry vegetations erupts and escalates turning to the disasterous hazards.

I have not really heard about lightening being the cause of the disaster in the known African sides that had experienced this wildfire. I am neither not saying it is impossible of the natural causes to happen. Natural occurrence can be unpredictable but mysterious too.

[9ja Amaka]

Can't figure out what to say at the moment, as there was no source of information added to the topic. This is incomplete and unverified information.

Two reasons why link sources are important so that you won't make the same mistake next time. The first reason is to help others understand the topic better, and secondly, to prove that the facts stated are true by showing where the information is coming from.

[bangjoe]

I do not know the exact situation in Africa, but I am sorry for the fires in Africa and hopefully there is no bad news and everyone can be safe and the fire hopefully quickly extinguished,also because forest fires also occur in my country in kalimantan which is one of the lungs of the world or a major oxygen producer for the Earth, some government actions have been done to extinguish the fire, even getting help from friendly countries such as Australia, Japan, Canada, vietnam, America, Ukraine, Russia and other countries that help fight forest fires, I represent gratitude at this forum for the countries that are willing to help us.

Google Maps

[Salahmu]

I was thinking why OP did not include source of the information in the post.
It is also no more news about Australia, USA and Canada being prone to this nature of wildfire disasters, although some part of African countries had got similar experiences of the wildfire but are usually notable to be caused by human aided activities whereas, the fire intentionally set on the dry vegetations erupts and escalates turning to the disasterous hazards.

I have not really heard about lightening being the cause of the disaster in the known African sides that had experienced this wildfire. I am neither not saying it is impossible of the natural causes to happen. Natural occurrence can be unpredictable but mysterious too.

Perhaps we should help ourselves to verify whether the country op mentioned is really suffering from this disaster or it was a speculation. However Africa has always been a continent that doesn't attract those disasters and actually I have not heard that any Africa countries has been affected by this serious disasters that's not a man made, and besides I have been on news channel this days so considering how important they treat any matter that concerns disasters it would have been everywhere, like when Australia fire outbreak also happen, everybody was aware of it, so is possible that a community from Algeria was having some minor fire crissis and op took it as something the whole country is affected.

[Ojima-ojo]

Wildlife ravages northern Algeria, killing 73 and injuring hundreds. Dozens of wildfire have reportedly swept across Northern Algeria.  The fire have destroyed a large area of forest and has affected a significant number of animals,  almost 80% of the forest was lost. Natural disasters are not common in Africa such as wildfire. It occurrence in Algeria should tell Africa leaders to prepare ahead . Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

The wildfire hit northeast Algeria, but according to the government source only 12 people lost their life in the wildfire incident and not 72 people as you claimed and for sure the hit wave have been so intense in the subsahara desert countries and government have being taking action to protect life's and properties but the proactive measures wasn't efficient enough and the impact of the wildfire in Algeria Jijel, and Bejaia, shows how natural disaster can occure even with noticeable signs as was witnessed in some other European countries.

[Sammye3]

Wildlife ravages northern Algeria, killing 73 and injuring hundreds. Dozens of wildfire have reportedly swept across Northern Algeria.  The fire have destroyed a large area of forest and has affected a significant number of animals,  almost 80% of the forest was lost. Natural disasters are not common in Africa such as wildfire. It occurrence in Algeria should tell Africa leaders to prepare ahead . Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

The most naturally occurring cause of wildfires is lightning and maybe other physical human activities. So my curiosity is to what started the wildfires over what damage it has caused. I believe there should be some certain control measures that could regulate the effect of these events.

Talking about the solutions to these events should be more helpful than discussing the effects it has caused. I think human activities have a major role to play in the cause of these wildfire and that should be a starting point to focus on.

[JeromeTash]

Ever since I started watching live news for years, I have then heard of a hurricane or tornado hitting any of the African countries. if it did, I must have missed it. Can you point out once instance where such a thing happened before?

You've never heard of a hurricane striking because it has a different name - cyclone or typhoon.

Notable Tropical Cyclones That Struck Africa:

Cyclone Idai (March 2019)
Cyclone Kenneth (April 2019)
Cyclone Gati (November 2020)
Cyclone Freddy (February–March 2023)

Thanks for this. I can't help but notice how recent the years are. I also got to realise that they do carry different names based on the regions they are striking. Here is what I fot from Gemini

However Africa has always been a continent that doesn't attract those disasters and actually I have not heard that any Africa countries has been affected by this serious disasters that's not a man made,

According to the news I have watched on Al Jazeera in the past. They would be affected mostly by floods and landslides. And then there was that deadly Moroccan earthquake that killed lots of people a couple of years back.

[uchegod-21]

Wildlife ravages northern Algeria, killing 73 and injuring hundreds. Dozens of wildfire have reportedly swept across Northern Algeria.  The fire have destroyed a large area of forest and has affected a significant number of animals,  almost 80% of the forest was lost. Natural disasters are not common in Africa such as wildfire. It occurrence in Algeria should tell Africa leaders to prepare ahead . Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

No link? I have never read or seen this in the media. Fire outbreaks are something that can happen in any location, but if prompt action is taken, the outbreak can be controlled on time to prevent more damage. Sometimes, negligence and a lack of proper facilities to fight the fire are the major reasons more damage than normal is caused. Natural disasters happen everywhere, including Africa, but may not have been covered by the media as widely as seen in Western countries. Just like some African countries are affected by floods that have destroyed properties. This news will now open the eyes of African leaders to see that they must always be equipped with the necessary facilities because anything can happen at any time.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Wildlife ravages northern Algeria, killing 73 and injuring hundreds. Dozens of wildfire have reportedly swept across Northern Algeria.  The fire have destroyed a large area of forest and has affected a significant number of animals,  almost 80% of the forest was lost. Natural disasters are not common in Africa such as wildfire. It occurrence in Algeria should tell Africa leaders to prepare ahead . Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

It is not that common to see wildfire ravaging Africa the way it used to open in America or other continents, before wildfire could be set, they're supposed to be a proper guide to set in place as control measure, I don't expect people to just go into the wood and set fire indiscriminately without putting some control measures in place to prevent the extent at which the fire will go, I will mostly blame the government an order individuals that take this action into their hands without due process.

[Marvelockg]

Wildlife ravages northern Algeria, killing 73 and injuring hundreds. Dozens of wildfire have reportedly swept across Northern Algeria.  The fire have destroyed a large area of forest and has affected a significant number of animals,  almost 80% of the forest was lost. Natural disasters are not common in Africa such as wildfire. It occurrence in Algeria should tell Africa leaders to prepare ahead . Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

It is not that common to see wildfire ravaging Africa the way it used to open in America or other continents, before wildfire could be set, they're supposed to be a proper guide to set in place as control measure, I don't expect people to just go into the wood and set fire indiscriminately without putting some control measures in place to prevent the extent at which the fire will go, I will mostly blame the government an order individuals that take this action into their hands without due process.

Well, except there is a clear prove that suggest that the fire came about by the carelessness of residence, natural disasters are things that happens when it wants to happen and considering that we have to a large extent distorted mother nature, natural disasters might appear more frequent than it use o happen in the past. we are yet to recover from the flash flood at Nepal that has left hundreds of people dead and missing and this. it all points to the fact that nature remains a strong neighbor we are inhabiting with as a major threat to our existence in different part of the world.

[Zlantann]

Wildlife ravages northern Algeria, killing 73 and injuring hundreds. Dozens of wildfire have reportedly swept across Northern Algeria.  The fire have destroyed a large area of forest and has affected a significant number of animals,  almost 80% of the forest was lost. Natural disasters are not common in Africa such as wildfire. It occurrence in Algeria should tell Africa leaders to prepare ahead . Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

Algeria has always experienced forest fires around the summer months. Climate change has contributed to the high intensity and destruction. The heat wave in some northern African countries is becoming intense, which is giving rise to wildfires. Algeria Algerian Civil Defense have been doing well to curtail the fire over the years but it seems they dont have the capcity to fight these intensive fire outtbreaks.

African leaders espeacilly those that are in the Northen part of the cpntinent would have to invest in green energy, tree planting, figher fighting equipments and emergency infastructures. The environment will leep getting hasher so every country should be ready for natural disaster.

[Accardo]

Algeria has always experienced forest fires around the summer months. Climate change has contributed to the high intensity and destruction. The heat wave in some northern African countries is becoming intense, which is giving rise to wildfires.

It's the opposite of the Harmattan that blows from the Sahara Desert to Western Africa, drying up plants and trees, with heavy dusts blowing in some areas. Despite cooling the weather at night and sometimes early in the morning, fire outbreaks still occur a lot during this period. It's natural, the hot air that blows heavily from the Sahara desert to Northern Africa flows with a temperature of 45°C, dries up tree leaves and ignites fire on the slightest spark. The heat there is so outrageous coupled with fire, the government should add effort in evacuating families living in the affected areas.

[DanWalker]

Never heard of any wild fires in Africa in the news before. I have seen those in South America, the US and parts of Europe, but not Africa? This is surprising. If indeed it was a natural phenomenon, then something unusual is happening with our climate

Africa is not immune to tornadoes, hurricane and wat have you.

Ever since I started watching live news for years, I have then heard of a hurricane or tornado hitting any of the African countries. if it did, I must have missed it. Can you point out once instance where such a thing happened before?

Africa is the continent with the most wildfires in the world. Even Nasa calls it the "Fire Continent".
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10832

Africa is also far from immune to storms and tornadoes. In 2019, Mozambique was hit by one of the deadliest cyclones ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, killing more than 1,300 people.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/19/weather/cyclone-idai-mozambique-facts-intl

I think we hear a lot less about wildfires and storms in Africa mainly because of the media. They don't cover these problems nearly as much when they happen in Africa, but somehow make everything seem much more serious and heartbreaking when it happen in the US or Eu.