The wildfires continue to rage in Europe, causing thousands to flee and taking the lives of pilots of firefighting aircraft.
The battle against the massive fire that has engulfed Bordeaux’s pine forests is being hampered by strong winds and dry weather. Fires also rage in Portugal, Spain and Greece.
As they tried to save as many houses as possible, around 3,000 firefighters were supported by water-dumping aircrafts.
Parts of Europe have been hit by fire earlier than usual this season after a hot spring that was unusually dry left them parched. Authorities attribute the phenomenon to climate change.
Photos: Wildfires in Europe, droughts, and ice pops
After a week of fighting multiple fires throughout Portugal, over 1,000 firefighters volunteered to help ordinary people save their homes.
The drought conditions and extreme temperatures that prevailed earlier than usual have helped to lighten the fires.
The pilot of a firefighting aircraft died Friday in a crash while he was on an operation in the northeast. This is the first fatality from a firefighting accident in Portugal this year.
Firefighters in Spain had to battle several fires across the border. Two of them burned approximately 7,400 ha.
A fire in the area forced around 3,000 people from southern Andalusia villages to flee.
Continue reading:
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Firefighters were trying to control a fire that was started by lightning in the west-central Las Hurdes region. This took place for the sixth day.
Robert Vautard, of the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute (Sorbonne University) stated that “all heatwaves in Europe so far are getting warmer.”
“So long as greenhouse gas emissions do not decrease to zero, heatwaves are likely to continue to intensify, become longer-lasting, and more frequent.”
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