- Forest fires are burning forests in Gironde, southwestern France
- UK temperatures exceed 40ºC for the first time
- Germany and Belgium are preparing for possible record temperatures
- More than 30 forest fires are reaching parts of Spain
LONDON / PARIS July 19 (Reuters) – Firefighters in southwestern France fought Tuesday to contain massive wildfires and the UK recorded its highest temperature when a heat wave was rising from the south settled in western Europe.
Southern and western Germany and Belgium also prepared for potentially record temperatures as the heat wave, which scientists attribute to climate change, went north and east.
A temperature of more than 40 degrees Celsius was provisionally recorded for the first time in Britain on Tuesday, the meteorological office said.
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Authorities have put the UK, which often struggles to maintain key transport services when hit by unexpected weather, such as heavy snow or strong winds, in a state of “national emergency” in the face of unprecedented temperatures.
Transport Minister Grant Shapps said it would take many years to completely upgrade British infrastructure to cope with higher temperatures, after at least two runways at the airport showed signs of damage and some train tracks had been damaged. deformed.
“We have seen a considerable amount of travel disruptions,” he told the BBC. “The infrastructure, much of which has been built since the Victorian era, was simply not built to withstand that kind of temperature.”
In southwestern France, the Gironde wine region has seen the largest forest fires in more than 30 years and authorities said a man had been arrested as a fire suspect.
The fires have spread over 19,300 hectares (about 75 square miles) to the countryside surrounding Bordeaux since July 12, forcing a total of 34,000 people to evacuate their homes.
About 2,000 firefighters, backed by eight water bomber planes, were fighting the flames.
“Despite the attacks from the ground and from the air, the situation has not yet stabilized,” the state prefecture said in a statement, adding that there have been no reports of deaths or injuries.
A study published by climate scientists in June in the journal Environmental Research: Climate concluded that climate change was very likely to be worsening heat waves. Read more
With man-made climate change triggering droughts, the number of extreme forest fires is expected to increase by 30% over the next 28 years, according to a February 2022 UN report.
“We’re seeing more frequent heat waves and the heat waves are hotter than they would have been without climate change,” Friederike Otto, a senior professor of climate science at Imperial College London, told Reuters.
A view shows a windmill burning by a forest fire at night outside Tabara, Zamora, during the second heat wave of the year, in Spain, on July 18, 2022. REUTERS / Isabel Infantes
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FLAMES AND SMOKE
Although mercury returned to more normal summer levels in Spain and Portugal, firefighters in both countries were still battling several fires.
More than 30 forest fires continued to ravage parts of Spain, and authorities paid special attention to four fires in Castilla y León and Galicia.
In Losacio, in the northwest of the province of Zamora, where two people have died and three have been critically injured, more than 6,000 people in 32 villages have been evacuated.
Spectacular television images showed flames and plumes of smoke rising into the night sky near the town of Tabara de Zamora.
On Monday, a man trying to protect his city from forest fires suffered a severe death blow when the fire engulfed his excavator, forcing him to run to save his life as he extinguished the flames on his clothes. Read more
In Galicia, more than 1,500 people have been evacuated from the road of four fires, which damaged several buildings.
So far this year, 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) have been burned in Spain, about twice the average of the last decade, according to official data before the heat wave.
In neighboring Portugal, about 50 municipalities, mainly in the central and northern regions, were still facing the “maximum risk” of forest fires, according to the IPMA meteorological institute.
More than 1,000 firefighters were battling five major wildfires, the largest of which started in the northern municipality of Murça and spread to two nearby municipalities.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated from villages and on Monday a couple of elderly people were found dead inside a burned car. Read more
In Greece, firefighters faced 73 fires in 24 hours, the fire department said Monday. The civil protection authority warned on Tuesday of a very high risk of fires throughout the country.
A forest fire that started in the Karst region of Slovenia had been contained on Tuesday by firefighters, authorities said, two days after the fire started. There were no casualties.
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Additional reports by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in London, Catarina Demony in Lisbon, Dominique Vidalon in Paris and Renee Maltezou in Athens, Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade, Editing by Nick Macfie, Gareth Jones and Bernadette Baum
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