One year anniversary of historic forest fire in Sweden

Radio Sweden
Posted: Friday, July 31, 2015 at 14:11
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A helicopter drops a load of water on the wildfire front just outside the evacuated village of Gammelby near Sala, Central Sweden, on August 4, 2014. The fire was classified as the worst forest fire in Sweden's modern history. (Fredrick Sandberg/AFP/Getty Images) — A helicopter drops a load of water on the wildfire front just outside the evacuated village of Gammelby near Sala, Central Sweden, on August 4, 2014. The fire was classified as the worst forest fire in Sweden’s modern history. (Fredrick Sandberg/AFP/Getty Images)

Friday is exactly one year after an enormous forest fire broke out in Västmanland in central Sweden.

And since the fire, forestry companies have changed several of their routines in an attempt to prevent future forest fires.

One forestry company, Stora Enso, is now requiring that all machines out working in the forest to be equipped with foam fire extinguishers. They have also sent out information to forestry workers about when they should not be working in the forest because of higher risks for fires breaking out.

Last year’s forest fire took almost two weeks for firefighters, including water-bombing planes from France and Italy, to get under control and covered an extensive 14,000 hectares. There were over 1,000 evacuated from their homes. It was the biggest forest fire in modern Swedish history.