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Broadcasting natural disasters - wildfires

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Broadcasting natural disasters - wildfires

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Asja, Ana, Lovro V., Jona

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How the media has reported on historical wildfires across Europe

Would any 21st century holiday be complete without an environmental catastrophe? Fueled by climate change, extreme fires ravaged hectares of forests in the summer of 2021. In countries of southern Europe but also in unexpected places such as Finland, many forests were destroyed. This blog explores how the media has reported on historical wildfires across Europe through a selection of visual material available on Europeana.

Staged disaster photos

In the beginning of the 20th century, cameras were large and cumbersome. Press photographers used large glass plates and heavy tripods, making it a hazardous enterprise to shoot any dangerous environmental catastrophes. This is why in those years there was little action photography and most of it was staged. For example, the images of the fire damaging the green area near Birling Gap, the famous Sussex beauty spot near Eastbourne in 1932 illustrate this practice. Despite the urgency of the situation requiring immediate action, we see people standing still to look at the flames turning the vegetation into ashes.

In July 1911, fire ravaged five hectares of the French countryside, the Fontainebleau forest lying southeast of Paris. The photographs of this disaster are extremely vivid and realistic, even for our 21st century eyes.

In the second half of the 20th century aerial firefighting started to be used because it had significant advantages over ground fire suppression methods. It was faster and gave access to places which were unreachable by ground. It also offered better observation of the fire situation.

TV programmes also showcased new techniques developed to prevent wildfires. This clip focuses on the forest fire warning system called 'Fire Watch' set up by the Berlin-based company IQ-Wireless. This technology uses high resolution cameras that were originally developed for the observation of earth from space.

This blog is part of the editorials of Europeana Subtitled, a project which enabled audiovisual media heritage to be enjoyed and increased its use through closed captioning and subtitling.

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Broadcasting natural disasters - wildfires

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How the media has reported on historical wildfires across Europe

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Nosso patrimônio industrial compartilhado não afetou apenas nossas economias e vidas, mas também nosso planeta e paisagens, muitas vezes de forma negativa. Esta galeria explora a poluição como um legado da industrialização em toda a Europa.

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Explore these paintings and photographs of rainy days from places across Europe and the world. Curated by [Europeana Common Culture partners](https://pro.europeana.eu/project/europeana-common-culture)

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Explore these paintings and photographs of rainy days from places across Europe and the world. Curated by [Europeana Common Culture partners](https://pro.europeana.eu/project/europeana-common-culture)

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