More evacuations as wildfires stretch across Europe
Antonio Bronic |
A wildfire has engulfed homes in a picturesque Croatian resort overnight, killing one person, injuring 40 and forcing 1200 to evacuate, as the European Union warns of pockets of “very extreme” wildfire conditions stretched across the continent.
Hundreds more people were evacuated from a beach resort in northern Greece and from a village in southwest France, while a major grass fire engulfed houses in England, officials said.
Record-breaking heat and drought that scientists link to climate change have created ideal conditions for wildfires across Europe this northern summer, especially in France, Spain and Greece. The Balkans region has also endured several heatwaves.
Authorities found one charred body while, of 40 people treated in the nearby hospital in Split, Croatia, seven were in a serious condition.
In northern Greece, people wearing face masks, some clutching children or pets, boarded dinghies and boats in the seaside town of Siviri as the fire devoured a forest and columns of smoke turned the cloudless sky a dark grey.
The coastguard said that more than 300 people had been evacuated by boat from the town, which sits on a peninsula of woodland, olive groves and beaches south of Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki.
More than 140 firefighters, nine aircraft and seven helicopters were deployed to battle flames, while fishing vessels took part in the evacuation.
Wildfires in Britain and Wales have hit a record level for a second consecutive year, fuelled by five heatwaves this summer, Phil Garrigan, chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, told Reuters on Friday.
In France, authorities evacuated 525 people from the village of Luglon after a wildfire broke out in the southwestern Landes region, not far from an area already devastated by major blazes this summer.
Rescue services in Spain late on Thursday launched an operation to remove the remains of three kings who ruled the Aragón region in the 11th century from a monastery threatened by a wildfire.
An even larger fire in Huelva, in southern Spain, has burned 31,000 hectares so far and forced the evacuation of 700 people.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service warned of “very extreme” conditions across a large area of central and eastern Europe, with additional pockets over southern Britain, Ireland, northern France and southern Sweden, in its outlook for the week to August 19.
The average high across Western Europe on Friday was forecast to be 31.2C, which is 8C above what was typical from 1961 to 1990, data from the Reuters Climate Monitor showed. The temperature for Europe as a whole was 1.6C above the 1961-1990 average, it said.
The hot, dry summer is also taking a heavy toll on agriculture. Relentless heat and drought could halve this year’s French maize harvest and reduce European Union production to its smallest in decades, according to analysts.
Reuters