Mega-Blazes Put Spotlight on Europe's Firefighting Tactics

As wildfires incinerate swathes of the Mediterranean, United Nations officials and disaster experts have called for an urgent revamp of firefighting to cope with a new era of mega-blazes.

Nearly 80 people have died in fires that have swept through Algeria, Greece, Italy and Turkey, driving thousands from their homes and underscoring projections in this week's IPCC report  of spiraling "fire weather conditions" by mid-century. In the new climatic era, mega-fires may erupt within minutes of ignition, said Sebastien Penzini, deputy Europe chief of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. "The evolving nature of wildfires obliges us to really change our paradigm and put more emphasis on fire prevention than suppression," he said.