A fresh spell of extreme heat, driven by climate change, is expected to intensify some of Europe's worst wildfires in decades, stretching firefighting resources to the limit.
Forecasts of an incoming heat wave across France and Spain this week threaten to hamper firefighting efforts. France's weather service predicted temperatures up to 40°C from Tuesday, while Spain's AEMET warned of a new heat wave from Wednesday through the weekend, with highs of 42°C in the northeast and 39°C in central regions.
Authorities said soaring temperatures, dry winds, and low humidity would push wildfire danger to "extreme" levels, as forests turned tinder-dry by successive heat waves this year.
Thousands of firefighters and water-dropping aircraft raced to contain the blazes before temperatures rise further. Experts linked the scale of the fires to increasingly frequent and intense heat waves driven by climate change.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron said one fire in the Landes region had been contained, but a much larger wildfire near Bordeaux continued to burn after scorching about 42,000 hectares, forcing around 220,000 people to evacuate and destroying hundreds of homes. "The weeks ahead will be hard. We must hold firm," Macron said.
In Spain, wildfires west of Madrid and in other regions have forced about 60,000 people to flee. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the coming hours would be "absolutely decisive" to bring fires under control.
Some 150,000 hectares of land have burned in Spain and 115,000 hectares in France since the start of this year. At a campsite near Navaluenga, co-owner Maria Angeles Canete said her family lost everything.
The European Union deployed additional firefighting aircraft to France, while EU commissioner Hadja Lahbib warned that resources are under growing strain as extreme fire conditions spread across southern and central Europe, including Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Portugal.
In Italy, a wildfire in the southern Puglia region forced the evacuation of hundreds of tourists from beaches and campgrounds.
Source: www.dw.com