Forest fires, adapt or die

The Mediterranean is an area hard hit by forest fires since it is characterized by hot and dry summers. The recurrent fires have pushed the vegetation to acquire two adaptations for surviving: massive germination after fire and regrowth. But it has also forced the fire department and forest ecologists devote many resources to understand fire behavior, and thus improve the firefighting. Paradoxically, improved quenching capacity has been accompanied by an increase in the intensity and extent of fires. The fire continues to escape us. So we have to do as vegetation: learning to live with it.