Wildfires, extreme heat sweeping across Europe
Crews in France were battling wildfires Saturday that had consumed more than 22,000 acres and prompted the evacuation of 12,000 people, authorities said.
The wildfires are among dozens across Europe, driven by a heat wave that has gripped parts of the continent and threatens to bring record-breaking temperatures to Britain this coming week.
The most serious fires in France were in the Gironde area, near the city of Bordeaux, where more than 1,200 firefighters had been deployed.
Météo France, the national weather forecaster, predicted temperatures of at least 104 degrees Fahrenheit on the country’s Atlantic coast from Sunday to Tuesday.
Firefighters also have been battling dozens of blazes in Greece, Portugal and Spain.
“Obviously, the longer the heat wave, the greater the repercussions as far as the issue of forest fires, and also on people’s health,” said Rubén del Campo, a spokesperson for Spain’s meteorological agency.
A sanitation worker in Madrid died Saturday after suffering from heat stroke the day before, a city employee said.
Portugal’s Health Ministry said this past week that there had been 238 excess deaths in the country from July 7 through Wednesday. It was unclear how many of those deaths were attributable to the heat.
Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa said Friday that the pilot of a firefighting plane was killed when the aircraft crashed in the northeast.
And in Greece, firefighters fought more than 50 blazes, the largest on the island of Crete and in the Saronikos region.
The heat wave was expected to hit Britain early this week, when temperatures were forecast to reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time.
The highest temperature officially recorded in Britain was 101.7 degrees Fahrenheit in July 2019, according to the national weather service, the Met Office.
Heat waves in Europe have increased in frequency and intensity over the past four decades, and a study published this month found the changes were happening faster than in other parts of the world, including hot spots like the western U.S.