Record heat wave kills 2; alltime high in France
PARIS — Schools are dousing kids with water and nursing homes are equipping the elderly with hydration sensors as France and other nations battle a recordsetting heat wave baking much of Europe.
Several people have died around the continent in incidents that authorities are linking to the exceptional weather.
Several countries have reported record temperatures this week, and France hit its alltime heat record Friday: 114.6 degrees Fahrenheit in the small southern town of Villevieille, according to French media.
The French national weather service activated its highestlevel heat danger alert for the first time, putting four regions around Marseille and Montpellier in the south of the country under special watch Friday.
Those schools that stayed open worked to keep kids cool. Teachers at the Victor Hugo Primary School in Colombes near Paris abandoned suffocating classrooms and are keeping children outside all day, spraying them with water and organizing quiet activities in the shade.
“I make them go in the playground with books, in the shade, they must stay seated,” said teacher Valerie Prevost. “We tell them to dampen their caps, to drink regularly.”
About 4,000 schools closed because they couldn't ensure safe conditions, and local authorities canceled many endofschoolyear carnivals.
Some criticized the government for going overboard, but Prime Minister Edouard Philippe defended the efforts after 15,000 people died in a heat wave in 2003 that woke France up to the risks.
Heat was blamed for the deaths of two people in Spain, private news agency Europa Press reported Friday.
In Berlin, a police unit turned water cannons — usually used against rioters — on city trees, to cool them down.