Temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 38 degrees Celsius) are forecast in Germany, Hungary and Italy today or in the coming days. The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) said 19 European countries were at “extreme risk” of fires on Wednesday, in an area stretching from Portugal and Spain in the southwest to Albania and Turkey in the southeast. On the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens, firefighters are battling huge blazes where wind is fanning flames and smoke and hampering containment efforts. At least 600 people have been evacuated, including from a children’s hospital, authorities said. “Our main priority remains the preservation of human lives. But also vital public infrastructure as well as citizens’ property,” said the representative of the Fire Service, Ioannis Artopios, during a televised briefing in the early hours of Wednesday. 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. 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. In Alsdorf, western Germany, three residents and two firefighters were injured in a fire on Tuesday, and much of the country is braced for more fires as temperatures rise on Wednesday. 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. 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. London was without fire engines at one point in the afternoon amid unprecedented demand , a senior firefighter with the London Fire Brigade’s special rescue team told CNN.
“Apocalyptic” scenes as Europe adjusts to new reality
As countries in the region deal with the immediate effects of extreme heat, many are also dealing with a climate reality that has brought new risks to the continent. Hot records are outnumbering hot records by more than 10 to 1 globally this year, according to data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Globally, 188 all-time heat records were broken versus 18 cold records through July 16. Studies have shown that extreme heat will increase in frequency, intensity and duration due to the climate crisis. “We’re learning the hard way that we need to better prepare and protect our forests and lands to stop living these nightmares every summer!” Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, tweeted on Wednesday. Residents of some hard-hit parts of Europe have hit out at their leaders as extreme temperatures ravaged their areas. A campsite owner told CNN’s BFMTV on Tuesday that “we have demands” from President Emmanuel 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”. Until Tuesday, the threat of wildfires in the UK was rarely considered by politicians or residents. However, many locations in southern England were engulfed in smoke during the country’s hottest day on record. A resident of Wennington, a London suburb hit by a fire on Tuesday, told CNN that the gardens on his street were “like a litter box” in the days leading up to 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 about how bad it could have been,” he said. “Thank God they all got out alive.” He added: “We’ve lost everything. But when we get back we can clear the site, put up some fences, get some caravans and we’ll start again.” CNN’s Elinda Lampropoulou, Chris Stern, Nina dos Santos, Robert Shackleford, Maddalena Araujo, Alex Hardy, Bianca Nobilo and Joseph Ataman contributed reporting.
