- Forest fires are burning forests in Gironde, southwestern France
- UK temperatures exceed 40ºC for the first time
- Germany and Belgium are preparing for possible record temperatures
- More than 30 forest fires are reaching parts of Spain
- Portugal has more than 1,000 deaths in excess due to the heat wave
LONDON / PARIS – July 19 (Reuters) – Firefighters in southwestern France battled massive wildfires on Tuesday and Britain recorded its highest temperature, while Portugal reported more than 1,000 deaths related to the heat wave as Europe burned.
Southern and western Germany and Belgium also prepared for potentially record temperatures as the heat wave, which scientists attribute to climate change, went north and east.
Numerous forest fires were recorded in Italy. One of the largest fires broke out Monday night in the hills of Massarosa in Tuscany, and was still taking place on Tuesday afternoon.
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“The fire continues to devour the forest in a terrifying way due to the wind,” Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani said, noting that 365 hectares (900 acres) of land had been destroyed.
Fires were also recorded in the forests near Rome, as well as on the shores of Lake Orta in northern Milan and near the city of Trieste in the northeast.
A wildfire-fueled fire ravaged a mountainous area near houses on the outskirts of Athens, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of at least one area.
A temperature of more than 40 degrees Celsius was provisionally recorded for the first time in the UK, the Met office said, and authorities have put the UK in a state of “national emergency” due to unprecedented temperatures.
Train routes from London to the east and west coasts of the country were canceled and the normally busy city centers seemed quiet. Network Rail tweeted images showing twists and turns on the tracks.
To the east of the capital, a large fire engulfed houses in the village of Wennington, with flames tearing neighboring fields and approaching a historic church. Large areas of grass around the capital were on fire.
“NOT STABILIZED” FIRE
In southwestern France, the Gironde wine region has seen the largest forest fires in more than 30 years and authorities said a man had been arrested as a fire suspect.
The fires have spread to 19,300 hectares (about 75 square miles) in the countryside surrounding Bordeaux since July 12, forcing 34,000 people to evacuate their homes.
About 2,000 firefighters, backed by eight water bomber planes, were fighting the flames.
A view shows remains in a Dune du Pilat campsite destroyed by a large fire near the forest of La Teste-de-Buch as wildfires continue to spread to the Gironde region in southwestern France on 19 July 2022. REUTERS / Pascal Rossignol
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With man-made climate change triggering droughts, the number of extreme forest fires is expected to increase by 30% over the next 28 years, according to a February 2022 United Nations report.
“We’re seeing more frequent heat waves and the heat waves are hotter than they would have been without climate change,” Friederike Otto, a senior professor of climate science at Imperial College London, told Reuters.
The impact on the health of the heat wave has been focused, with special attention to the elderly and vulnerable.
The head of Portugal’s health authority, Graça Freitas, told Reuters that from July 7 to 18, 1,063 excess deaths were recorded due to the heat wave, above normal levels.
“Portugal … is among one of the areas in the world that could be (most) affected by the extreme heat,” Freitas said. “We need to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures.”
Carlos Antunes, a researcher at the Faculty of Science at the University of Lisbon, said the data showed that older people were more likely to die from heat waves.
Warm nighttime temperatures also hamper fire responses across Europe and worsen sanitary conditions, as nighttime hours do not provide a break, experts said on Tuesday. Read more
FLAMES AND SMOKE
In Italy, temperatures were expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius in a northern and central strip this week, as well as in the southern heel of the boot of Italy, Puglia, and the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.
Five cities were put on high red alert due to the heat wave on Tuesday. The alert, which warns of serious climate-related health risks, will cover nine cities on Wednesday and rise to 14 on Thursday, including many of Italy’s largest metropolitan areas such as Rome, Milan and Florence.
Although mercury returned to more normal summer levels in Spain and Portugal, firefighters in both countries were still battling several fires.
More than 30 forest fires continued to ravage parts of Spain, and authorities paid special attention to four fires in Castilla y León and Galicia.
In Losacio, in the northwest of the province of Zamora, where two people have died and three have been seriously injured, more than 6,000 people in 32 villages have been evacuated.
So far this year, 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) have been burned in Spain, about twice the average of the last decade, according to official data before the heat wave.
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Additional reports by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in London, Catarina Demony in Lisbon, Dominique Vidalon in Paris and Renee Maltezou in Athens, Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade, Crispian Balmer in Rome, Bart Biesemans in Belgium; Editing by Nick Macfie, Gareth Jones, Bernadette Baum, Alexandra Hudson and Richard Chang
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