Hundreds of firefighters battled forest infernos in France, Spain and Portugal on Sunday as temperatures rose again in heatwave-scarred Europe.
The latest wildfires have already devastated more than 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of land across the three countries, with temperatures in some places predicted to reach 40 degrees Celsius.
Authorities registered thousands of excess deaths during one of Europe’s worst heatwaves in June. With more extreme weather on the way, France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez has already expressed concern that the annual summer wildfire season has started a month early.
A fire near Spain’s northeastern Costa Brava coast burned more than 2,200 hectares in two days and firefighters said their operation on Sunday would be “complicated” by rising temperatures and the many “smoking hotspots” within the fire’s perimeter.
Firefighters “worked tirelessly throughout the night to consolidate the perimeter of the La Bisbal d’Empordà forest fire, which is now stabilised”, said a Catalunya fire service statement.
Catalunya regional government president Salvador Illa said that a man had been detained in connection with the fire, which has badly hit the Gavarres protected natural area between Barcelona and the French border.
Nearly 600 French firefighters have been mobilised to contain a wildfire that has burned more than 1,000 hectares on a mountainside at Trevillach, about 36km (20 miles) east of Perpignan.
Roads in the region have been closed, and the authorities have ordered mayors to open emergency shelters for people who could be forced to flee their homes.
Another 300 French firefighters battled another forest fire in a mountainous district of the southeastern Drome department.
In Portugal, emergency services said they had controlled “80 per cent” of a wildfire that devastated some 13,000 hectares of forest and scrubland in the north of the country.
Jose Costa, senior civil protection officer, said that the fire had spread 35km since it started on Thursday and that 1,200 firefighters had been involved in the battle. Spain and Italy sent reinforcements and water-carrying planes after Portugal appealed for help to fight the inferno that left at least nine people injured by burns.
Several regions across Portugal, Spain and southern France stepped up heat alerts on Sunday as temperatures rose again. On Monday, the latest heatwave was expected to move north. Forecasters say it could last until next weekend.
In Greece, a fast-moving wildfire broke out on Saturday evening near the suburbs of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, the country’s fire service said, and residents of three small suburbs north of the city were told to evacuate.
The fire ignited in a ravine in a mountainous area around 8.30pm and spread quickly to the plains, burning mostly through brush, the Hellenic Fire Service said.
While residences were spared, several businesses were damaged, the service said. Residents of the small settlements of Anthoupoli, Filothei and Galini were notified by text to evacuate.
Also evacuated was a facility housing 157 people with special needs. About 120 of those who could walk were being sheltered in a gym, while the rest were housed in a psychiatric hospital, local authorities said.
Authorities announced overnight that a 76-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of starting the fire. He “appeared not to be sober”, the Hellenic Fire Service said.
The first major wildfire hit on Wednesday in central Greece, killing a man and his 12-year-old son, and prompting evacuations. Greece has been spared, so far, the extreme heat that engulfed much of the rest of Europe.
Western Europe has already seen heatwaves this year in May and June that would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.
Following a two-week surge in temperatures in June, France said there had been more than 2,000 extra deaths than usual in just one week, while Spain and Belgium each reported more than 1,000.
Authorities in several countries fear more summer trouble ahead.
“Climate change is here, we are living the consequences, and it is only the start of July,” said French fire service Colonel Eric Belgioino as he made an appeal for people near the Pyrenees inferno to take precautions to avoid starting fires.
“The season is going to be long for the soldiers fighting fires. You have to help us,” he said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
