Over 314 wildfires in the Netherlands last year, most in June

The fire department had to work on at least 314 wildfires last year. There were also 70 fires in military areas and 21 field fires, the yearly report of wildfires from the Netherlands Institute for Public Safety (NIPV) showed.

June was the month with the most wildfires, with 191. The NIPV cites the drought that month as a possible reason. Five wildfires were given a so-called GRIP status. This means that the emergency services were coordinated together. These included a wildfire in Assen on May 4, a fire in Bergen, Limburg on June 4, a fire in Purmerend on June 12, one in Musselkanaal on June 16, and a wildfire in Ter Apel on June 18.

The researchers linked data from the KNMI to the fire reports. The analysis showed that most of the fires occurred during temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius. There was one wildfire that occurred when the temperature was below 0 degrees Celsius.

The field fires were mainly in June, July, and August. These are the months that the grain fields are dried and harvested. The fires in the military areas happened throughout the year but only in the morning or afternoon. “This is explainable by the fact that these are mainly the hours that the military does its training exercises,” researchers added.

This is the first time the NIPV has tracked wildfires. The reports have been automatically collected since last year. They were then checked with messages from the media, the fire department, nature managers, the military, and Social Media.