The impressive images of southern Europe still overwhelmed by forest fires and the heat wave

In the south-west of France, the mobilization of firefighters is not weakening this Saturday to fix the fires, and particularly in Gironde, where nearly 9,000 hectares of forest have gone up in smoke since Tuesday, in a context of generalized heat wave where temperatures could reach 40°C locally.

In the town of Teste-de-Buch, the efforts made have slowed the progression of the fire. “We are still, and it is a satisfaction, at 3150 hectares burned, but the fire is still not under control“, declared to the press the sub-prefect of Arcachon Ronan Léaustic, who greeted the”enormous intensity and mobilization“firefighters in the night”to keep this scope“.

Further east of the Gironde, in the municipalities of Landiras and Guillos, the fire continues to progress, burning “more than 6000 hectares, i.e. more than 1000 hectares for 22 hours“, said the prefecture in a press release.

In 24 hours, the Sdis “had to face 22 departures from the forest in the Gironde department“, also underlined the prefecture at midday on Twitter.

Resumptions have also taken place in recent hours on the side of the beaches of the Lagoon and Petit-Nice to the south of the very touristy dune of Pilat, said the mayor of Teste-de-Buch, Patrick Davet.

Since Tuesday,nearly 12,000“Residents and vacationers had to leave the premises. Five emergency accommodation centers and a medico-psychological emergency cell were opened to support the victims. These fires, triggered at the start of the heat wave episode which has affected France since Monday, did not cause any casualties. A total of 1,200 firefighters are mobilized on Saturday on both fronts.

Firefighters were also concentrated elsewhere in France to fight fires such as in the Montagnette massif, south of Avignon, where 800 of them remained mobilized to “monitor and treat hotspots and edgesof the now fixed fire, which ravaged 1400 hectares.

In Brittany, in the town of Verger, west of Rennes, a fire also destroyed 20 to 25 hectares of vegetation on Friday, according to the Departmental Fire and Rescue Operational Center. The fire was set Saturday morning.

Fires in the Iberian Peninsula

In Portugal, only one major fire is still active this Saturday, in the north of the country, between the municipalities of Baião and Amarante. In the middle of the day, the fire progressed there at least on a front, on the side of a wooded hill in this hilly region located upstream of the Douro river, noted AFP journalists.

The day before, a water bomber plane which was fighting a forest fire in the region of Guarda (north) crashed, causing the death of the pilot, its sole occupant.

According to a report from the Portuguese civil protection, the fires of the last week have left two dead and around sixty injured. According to his estimates, these fires have ravaged, since the start of the heat wave, between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares of forest and brush.

In Spain, dozens of fires were still raging from north to south of the country. In the region of Extremadura, on the border with Portugal, a household at “unfavorable development“, according to the regional government, resulted on Saturday morning in the closure of a section of the A5 motorway, linking Madrid to the Portuguese border.

At the same time, in the far south of Andalusia, a fire near Malaga forced the preventive evacuation of more than 3,000 people, according to the Andalusian emergency services.

In Greece, firefighters continue to fight an outbreak that broke out on Friday morning, causing the preventive evacuation of seven villages in a rural area of ​​the prefecture of Rethymno, on the island of Crete.

Further north in Europe, in the UK, a crisis committee made up of British government ministers is due to meet on Saturday after the national weather agency issued the first-ever warning “redfor extreme heat, warning of a “life risk“.

The Met Office said temperatures in southern England could top 40C for the first time on Monday or Tuesday, potentially breaking the record high of 38.7C from 2019.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has advised Londoners to only use public transport on these days in the event of “absolute necessity“. Rail companies have also urged passengers to avoid travel.

Read alsoWhy Monday could be the hottest day on record in France

This heat wave is the second in barely a month in Europe. The multiplication of these phenomena is a direct consequence of global warming according to scientists, with greenhouse gas emissions increasing in intensity, duration and frequency.

SEE ALSO – Fire in Gironde: “The fire is still not under control”