OLEIROS, Portugal — When Portugal’s deadliest wildfire killed more than 60 people in June not far from the hamlet where Daniel Muralha lives, it was just the pensioner’s latest brush with death. In 2003, Mr. Muralha, 77, narrowly survived a huge forest fire that engulfed his house. “The fires are getting worse and worse, which means this place is going to become a desert,” he said. Hotter, drier summers are setting off more forest fires, which are accelerating a decades-old migration from rural areas, leaving lands untended. That, in turn, helps fuel new and more intense fires that spread and burn even faster.

Source: New York Times August 12, 2017 09:27 UTC