As Europe’s heat wave moves east, wildfires have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, blanketing parts of Italy, Greece and France in smoke. Germany, Hungary and Italy have been hit with high temperatures of around 100F (nearly 38C) in places. The European Forest Fire Information System put 19 European countries on “extreme danger” alert for fires on Wednesday, stretching from Portugal and Spain in the southwest to Albania and Turkey in the southeast. There was some respite in the UK, where temperatures fell from Tuesday’s record high of 40.3C (104.5F) back into the 20s. However, some residential areas around London were left in ruins after fires broke out in parts of the capital, stretching the fire service to its limits. “Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War,” Mayor of London Sadiq Khan told Sky News on Wednesday, as residents of the capital watched their homes destroyed by fires caused by the heat they never thought possible. A resident of Wennington, a London suburb hit by Tuesday’s fires, told CNN that the gardens on his street were “like a litter box” in the days before the fire. Stock lost his home, eight chickens and two beehives when the fire broke out. “I didn’t sleep last night. I was in the hotel room thinking how bad it could have been. I just thank God they all got out alive,” he said. “We’ve lost everything. But when we get back, we can clear the site, put up fences, get some caravans and we’ll start again.” London had no fire engines available at one point in the afternoon amid unprecedented demand, a senior firefighter with the London Fire Brigade’s special rescue team told CNN. In the United States, local leaders are calling for caution and issuing health warnings as a heat wave that shows no signs of slowing ahead of the weekend continues to swelter across the country’s south central regions. And in China, millions of densely populated cities are responding to extreme heat. According to the China Meteorological Administration, at least 31 Chinese cities have issued the second-highest orange alert, with temperatures expected to reach 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next 24 hours.
Europe is burning in record heat
Greece: On the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens, firefighters have battled huge flames fanned by the winds. At least 600 people have been evacuated, including from a children’s hospital, authorities said. One person died and 30 have been taken to hospitals in the region of the capital Attica, the Hellenic Fire Service announced on Wednesday. “Our main priority remains the preservation of human lives. But also vital public infrastructures as well as citizens’ properties,” said press representative Ioannis Artopios during an earlier televised briefing. Huge clouds of smoke remained visible in the city on Wednesday, despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters. Romanian fire crews have been called in to assist the operation. Italy: The flames are also being tackled in parts of Italy. Fires in Tuscany caused gas tanks to explode and forced evacuations overnight, according to regional president Eugenio Giani. Germany: In Alsdorf, western Germany, three residents and two firefighters were injured in a fire on Tuesday, and much of the country is bracing for more fires as temperatures rise on Wednesday. France: In France, planes continued to drop water over burning landscapes. The fires have been raging there for a week, although they had progressed “slightly” on Tuesday night in the Gironde region, according to local authorities. Smoke billowed over the Brennilis nuclear power plant in Brittany on Wednesday morning. Just as the UK prime minister has been criticized for a lack of heatwave preparedness, France’s Emmanuel Macron is under pressure to respond more quickly to the heat and fires, which have already burned 25 times more land in France than in the same period. last year, government spokesman Olivier Veran told reporters on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the president of the fire-stricken Gironde region called for additional resources, including firefighting aircraft to be diverted there. A campsite owner told CNN’s BFMTV on Tuesday that “we have demands” from Macron, who will visit the battered southwest on Wednesday. “We hope that he will be able very quickly to order the public services to help us, to support us in the administrative steps to get the campsite up and running as soon as possible,” said Stephane Carella, co-owner of Pyla Camping. the premises of which were destroyed by fires. “Everything has gone up in smoke,” he said, with about 90% of his property destroyed by the fire. Karella described the rest of the site as “revealing”.
High temperatures are sweeping the US
The baking weather in the US has so far been concentrated in parts of the South and is of particular concern for the well-being of the elderly, vulnerable and homeless.
In Texas, 14 jails have no air conditioning and 55 have only partially functional systems, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) told CNN. Texas has had at least four heat waves this season, a hot streak that began affecting the state before summer officially began. Since May 1, more than half of their days have come with some level of heat alert.
As temperatures in neighboring Arizona reached triple digits Tuesday afternoon, about 7,000 people lost power due to severe storms, a spokesman for the Arizona Public Service Company said.
In some areas, such as Miami-Dade County and Phoenix, local governments have hired senior heat officers to help residents beat the heat.
Much of the north of the country, and parts of Canada, are also bracing for rising temperatures. Philadelphia has issued a “heat advisory” since noon Tuesday, which will be extended until 8 p.m. ET Thursday, the city said in an email to CNN. He also declared a “code red” alert for the homeless in the area.
The Canadian government issued heat and severe thunderstorm warnings for at least four provinces on Tuesday.
Elinda Labropoulou, Chris Stern, Nina dos Santos, Robert Shackleford, Madalena Araujo, Alex Hardie, Bianca Nobilo, Dave Alsup, Renée Bertini and Joseph Ataman contributed to CNN’s reporting.
