Drammen in ashes: Another tragedy in Norway's hellish year

Wildfire smoke blankets the Nordic region and North America this weekend, signaling a summer of heat and disaster. The catastrophe in Drammen, Norway, is being called another chapter in the country's "hellish year." "It just went 'poof,' in half an hour everything was gone," recounts Alexandra Skog in a report from Krokstadelva. An estimated 400 people have lost their homes, losses that cannot be measured in money, even though authorities managed to save lives through swift evacuations. The rain arrived too late, following a scorching summer. While large fires have occurred in the Nordic region before the era of global warming, with medieval Oslo destroyed in 1624 and parts of Bergen burning in 1916, densely populated areas with many wooden houses create conditions for severe conflagrations. Even in an age where rescue services combat flames from helicopters, the images from Krokstadelva echo recent fire disasters in California. There, heat and drought make vegetation highly flammable, and subsequent heavy rainfall contributes to new growth that fuels the next catastrophe. "What forces," notes Frøy Gudbrandsen, political editor of Verdens Gang, on Saturday morning. She lists questions that must be asked once the Drammen fire is extinguished: How did the fire start? Could it have been contained? Could more resources have been deployed, and faster? And would it have made a difference? The fire becomes another entry in the history of Norway's "annus horribilis." 2026 has already been marked by a deep crisis for the Norwegian royal house and new revelations about contacts between representatives of the humanitarian superpower and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The festive mood is dampened by severe air pollution on the US East Coast, where residents and tourists have been urged to stay indoors due to smoke from large forest fires in Ontario, Canada, creating haze in New York City.

“

It just went 'poof,' in half an hour everything was gone