The Flame

Children’s health at risk in south Borneo as El Niño intensifies Indonesia wildfires

BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — Siti Sarah slept in fits and starts through August as the fires broke out around her village and surrounding peatlands. One fire on Aug. 18 at first seemed a safe distance away, but in a heartbeat the flames were within 100 meters (330 feet) of her home in Pengayuan, a village in […]

Mongabay · 9/10/2026

Sickles, sarees and smoke: Women on the frontlines of Uttarakhand forest fires

In the village forests of Uttarakhand, in the Himalayan region of northern India, a tree can be charred at its base while maintaining a green canopy at its peak. The distinct separation between burnt and unburnt wood is a physical marker of how high the flames reached. For the local women who rely on these […]

Mongabay · 9/8/2026

Pine-cone grenades and planet-baking carbon: the French fires 170 years in the making – a visual guide

An 1857 decree to drain swamps and plant a monoculture, detritus from the trees and global heating combined to produce the conditions for the Gironde inferno The ruinous fires that overran parts of France this summer have burned more land than ever recorded, forced more people from their homes than at any point since the second world war and caused what scientists suspect is the country’s first firestorm thundercloud. The smoke from France’s biggest inferno in nearly 80 years choked Limoges, a city 125 miles (200km) from the flames, with more toxic dust than Delhi residents inhaled on the city’s worst day of smog last year. The blaze that tore through forests outside Bordeaux in late July took just a few weeks to reforge France’s relationship with fire, but the conditions behind it were centuries in the making. Continue reading...

The Guardian Environment · 8/23/2026

'Not afraid to stay': The Canadians taking fighting wildfires into their own hands

With wildfires now widespread and frequent, some rural residents in Canada are learning how to fight the flames themselves and protect their own homes.

BBC Science & Environment · 8/9/2026

France and Spain race to contain huge wildfires before fresh heatwave begins

Coming days are ‘absolutely critical’ for firefighters before temperatures rise again this week, officials say Firefighters in France and Spain are racing to bring huge wildfires under control before another heatwave this week that will complicate efforts to tame the flames. Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Monday and Tuesday were “absolutely crucial days” before temperatures rise again from Wednesday. Continue reading...

The Guardian Environment · 7/27/2026

Malaysia clamps down on toxic trade with total e-waste import ban

KLANG, Malaysia — On the morning of July 7, 2026, a shipping container declared to contain tin ore caught fire shortly after offloading at Port Klang, Malaysia. After firefighters doused the flames, they pried open the steel doors and found no industrial metals — only a cargo packed full of scorched electrical and electronic waste, […]

Mongabay · 7/20/2026