Last year at least 314 wildfires in the Netherlands, most of them in June and in warm weather Domestic

June was the month with the most wildfires, with 191 incidents, according to an annual report from the Netherlands Institute for Public Safety (NIPV). This may be due to the drought in that month.

Five wildfires were given a so-called GRIP status last year. This means that the emergency services work together in a coordinated manner. These fires raged in Assen in Drenthe (May 4), Bergen in Limburg (June 4), Purmerend in North Holland (June 12), Musselkanaal in Groningen (June 16) and Ter Apel in Groningen (June 18).

The researchers also linked data from the KNMI to the fire reports. The analysis shows that most fires took place at temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees. At one wildfire the temperature was below freezing.

The fires on fields mainly took place in June, July and August. These are the months in which the grain fields are dried and harvested. The fires on military sites occurred all year round, but only in the morning and afternoon. “This can be explained by the fact that these are mainly the hours when the defense practices,” the researchers say.

It is the first time that the NIPV has kept track of wildfires. The reports have been collected automatically since last year. The annual report also clarifies which fires are ultimately classified as wildfires and which are not.

Partly because of this, the number of wild fires in the report is lower than the number of reports to the fire brigade. Until the middle of last November there were already 450.

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