Europe's wildfires hit tourism spots and forests

MADRID/LISBON, Aug 12: Firefighters across Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and the Balkans were battling wildfires on Tuesday with another heatwave pushing temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across parts of Europe.

Global warming is giving the Mediterranean region hotter, drier summers, scientists say, with wildfires surging each year and sometimes whipping up into “whirls”.

“We are being cooked alive, this cannot continue,” said a mayor in Portugal, Alexandre Favaios, as three fires burned.

On the outskirts of the Spanish capital Madrid, a fire killed a man working at a horse stable and reached some houses and farms but was contained by Tuesday, regional authorities said.

To the south in Tarifa, on Spain’s coast close to Morocco, beachgoers and celebrity chef Jose Andres filmed flames and black smoke on the hills above elegant whitewashed villas.
More than 2,000 people were evacuated from Tarifa as the fire – believed to have started in eucalyptus and pine forests – spread, officials said. Helicopters doused the blaze with seawater.

In Albania and Montenegro, authorities issued a heatwave warning as temperatures reached 100F (38-39C).

Germany issued heat warnings for much of the country on Monday, with temperatures above 86F (30C) expected until Friday.

In Italy, red heat alerts were issued for 16 cities while in France, authorities declared red or orange weather alerts for much of the country.

In Spain, temperatures were set to reach 111.2F (44C) in some regions, according to meteorology service AEMET. Minimal rainfall and windy conditions were expected to exacerbate the risk.

SPANISH MILITARY HELPS

Spain’s Interior Ministry declared a “pre-emergency”, putting national services on standby to support firefighting. Almost 1,000 members of the armed forces are already helping.

Spain’s largest region, Castile and Leon, had 32 wildfires raging on Tuesday with more than 1,200 firefighters involved.

Five of the fires were categorised as a direct threat to nearby populations. In Leon province, around 3,780 residents were evacuated, while over 600 residents of seven towns in Zamora were also ordered to leave their homes.

In north Portugal, more than 1,300 firefighters backed by 14 aircraft were battling three large fires. One of them, in the Vila Real area, has been burning for 10 days.

Local mayor Favaios pleaded for more government help. “It’s been 10 days of extremely hard fight against the flames, 10 days that our population is in panic, without knowing when the fire will knock on their door,” he told broadcaster RTP.

With two Portuguese waterbombing planes in need of repair, authorities on Monday requested help from Morocco, which sent two replacement planes.

A heatwave that brought temperatures of around 40C to north Portugal in the past week showed signs of abating on Tuesday, with rain and thunderstorms expected, according to the weather service IPMA.

Across the region in Albania, swathes of forest and farmland have been burnt by wildfires in the past week.

Helicopters from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United Arab Emirates assisted the Balkan state to contain 19 separate wildfires stoked by strong winds on Tuesday.

In neighbouring Montenegro, authorities backed by helicopters from Serbia and Croatia contained a wildfire near the capital Podgorica on Tuesday, with the city covered by smoke.
Resident Dragana Vukovic told Reuters against the backdrop of her home’s smouldering rafters: “Everything that can be paid for and bought will be compensated, but the memories that burned in these four rooms and the attic cannot be compensated.”

‘OUT OF CONTROL’

In Greece at Europe’s southernmost tip, wildfires in some cases fanned by gale-force winds forced the evacuation of several villages and a hotel on the tourist islands of Zakynthos and Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea along with four other parts of the mainland.

“Winds are strong and the wildfire is out of control,” Zakynthos mayor Yiorgos Stasinopoulos told Greek public broadcaster ERT.

Another 85 firefighters and 10 aircraft fought to stop a fire reaching houses near the western Greek town of Vonitsa.

The picture was similar in Turkey where a large blaze in the northwestern province of Canakkale burned for a second day after hundreds of residents were evacuated in precaution.

Wildfires in Canakkale’s Ezine and Ayvacik districts, which saw Canakkale airport and the Dardanelles Strait closed on Monday, were largely brought under control by Tuesday. But blazes in the city centre in the southern part of the strait were still burning, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said in a post on X.