France was preparing on Monday for the high point of the heat wave taking over the country, with overwhelming temperatures expected from the Mediterranean, as wildfires continued to rage across Europe.
Meteorologists have put 15 departments in France on high alert for extreme temperatures, including Gironde in the southwest, where wildfires have already wreaked havoc.
It comes as firefighters fought Sunday to contain the flames in southwestern Europe, as the heat wave showed no sign of attenuation, and Britain was set to set new temperature records next week. .
Fires in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have destroyed thousands of hectares of land and forced thousands of residents and holidaymakers to flee.
It is the second heat wave to engulf part of Europe in weeks. Scientists blame climate change and predict more frequent and intense episodes of extreme weather, such as heat waves and drought.
In France, in the forest of the Landes, in the southwestern region of Aquitaine, temperatures would be above 42ºC (107F), according to forecaster Olivier Proust.
And Brittany, which until recently escaped the worst heat, could record temperatures as low as 40 ºC (104 ºF), experts say, which would be a record for the region.
On Sunday afternoon, the Gironda fires, which have been piling up since Tuesday, had already destroyed 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres), driven by strong winds and forcing the evacuation of 16,200 summer residents, fire officials said.
Black smoke rises from forest fires in Landiras, France. Photography: Jérôme Gilles / NurPhoto / REX / Shutterstock
– The fire in the forest of Teste-de-Buch, in the southwest of France, had reached the beach and was moving south, said the local prefecture. The video filmed by people at the scene showed the massive fire that consumed the beach of La Lagune, near the famous Pilate Dune, the highest sand dune in Europe.
The French Interior Ministry announced it was sending three more firefighters to bolster the six already operating in the region, as well as 200 more firefighters and more equipment.
But crews fighting the fire will have to deal with high temperatures on Monday. It is one of the regions with “red alert” heat wave warning.
“In certain areas of the southwest, it will be a heat apocalypse,” Meteo-France forecaster François Gourand told AFP.
Temperatures throughout France are expected to be above 30ºC (86F), but between 38 and 40 degrees in the western half of the country.
Officials in several regions, meanwhile, have also issued pollution alerts due to high ozone concentrations.
French cyclist Mikael Cherel, who took part in the 15th stage of the Tour de France between Rodez and Carcassonne in the south of France on Sunday, described “very, very difficult conditions”.
“I have never known such a hot day by bike. It really wasn’t a picnic. “
On Sunday, fires broke out near Landiras in southwestern France. Photography: AP
In Spain, authorities reported about 20 forest fires still out of control in different parts of the country, from the south to Galicia, in the far northwest, where the fires have destroyed about 4,500 hectares of land.
The fires have already killed several emergency crews since last week, most recently a firefighter who died Sunday afternoon while fighting a fire in the northwest of the country.
Firefighters managed to stabilize a forest fire that ravaged 2,000 hectares of forests and shrubs in the southern region of Andalusia, said regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno.
The fire started on Friday in the Sierra de Mijas inland from the southern coastal city of Malaga and caused the evacuation of about 3,000 people.
Since then, some 2,000 people had returned home and now that the fire has stabilized, Moreno said the remaining evacuees could do the same.
A firefighter died Sunday from burns while fighting a fire in the northwestern Spanish province of Zamora, the regional government said.
Firefighters fight the flames in Catalonia, Spain. Photo: Eric Renom / ZUMA Press Wire / REX / Shutterstock
The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, has expressed his “condolences and affection” to the man’s family and colleagues.
“There are no words to thank those who fight fires relentlessly for their immense work. RIP, ”he added in a tweet.
Sanchez is due to visit the heavily affected eastern region of Extremadura on Monday, where various fires have been taking place for days.
The firefighter’s death comes after a pilot died last week when his plane crashed in northern Portugal, and two crew members died in Greece when their helicopter crashed into the sea.
The extreme heat has also claimed the lives of two men in Spain over the weekend.
A 50-year-old man in Torrejón de Ardoz, on the outskirts of Madrid, died Sunday after suffering a heat stroke while out for a walk, local emergency services reported.
And on Saturday, a 60-year-old Madrid street cleaner died after suffering a heat stroke while working the day before.
In Portugal, almost the entire country remained on high alert for forest fires despite a slight drop in temperatures, after reaching 47ºC on Thursday – a record for July.
Sunday only burned a major fire in the north.
Fires have killed two, injured about 60 and destroyed between 12,000 and 15,000 hectares of land in Portugal.
In the UK, the weather office issued a first “red” warning for extreme heat, warning that there was a “risk to life”.
The Met Office said temperatures in the south of England could exceed 40 ºC on Monday or Tuesday for the first time, prompting some schools to say they would remain closed next week.
Organizers of a four-day march in the Netherlands canceled the first day of the mass event that would begin on Tuesday due to extreme heat.
Mercury will reach 38ºC in some parts of the Netherlands on Tuesday.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report